February 13, 1996
Web posted at: 11:50 a.m. EST (1650 GMT)
From Correspondent May Lee
FURUBIRA, Japan (CNN) -- The massive slab of rock that crushed a highway tunnel Saturday still won't budge, and rescuers have been unable to recover the 20 victims trapped in the debris on Japan's Hokkaido island.
On Tuesday, rescuers tried again to blast away the 50,000-ton, tear-shaped boulder that fell on the tunnel and crumpled a bus carrying 19 people and a car with one person. The attempt only managed to blow away the face of the giant slab.
Rescue workers postponed a fourth attempt to blast into the tunnel but said they would try again Wednesday, during daylight hours. (536K QuickTime movie)
"To our regret, we have to give up the plan for the night," a police spokesman said. "We would like to do it early tomorrow morning."
Two similar blasts on Sunday and Monday also failed. Rescue workers said they would continue blasting until the victims were freed.
It still isn't clear what caused the rock to fall off the mountain above the tunnel. But some officials speculated it may have broken free because fissures could have developed in the mountain over the years by water seeping into cracks and freezing, forcing the cracks to widen.
Anxious relatives of the victims have been waiting night and day in bitterly cold weather for news. The slow progress is prolonging their misery. Nearly every villager in the nearby fishing community of Furubira has a friend or relative among the 19 people on the bus. Most have given up hope.
Rescue teams have not seen or heard any signs of life since the accident. They say the victims most likely were killed instantly by the avalanche.
Other methods to try to reach those trapped have been considered. One is to drill a hole from the top of the tunnel, which would take a week to do. The other option, to dig by hand through the rubble, would take 60 days.
Japanese transportation officials Tuesday ordered a nationwide inspection of 7,000 tunnels to help prevent another such accident.
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