NAGOYA -- A worker has sustained injuries to his right leg after sediment collapsed at a Linear Chuo Shinkansen maglev train line tunnel construction site, the Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Central) announced Nov. 8, in what is the second accident on the project in less than a month.

       The incident comes shortly after a fatal Oct. 27 accident in the central Japan city of Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture, when a Linear Chuo Shinkansen construction worker died and another was injured in a tunnel collapse.

       JR Central said that some 5 cubic meters of earth, weighing about 10 metric tons, collapsed at around 8:20 a.m. on Nov. 8 from the surface of an excavated section inside a tunnel being used to build the Linear Chuo Shinkansen's Ina Mountains tunnel in the central Japan village of Toyooka, Nagano Prefecture.

       The accident took place about 200 meters from the surface entrance, when eight workers were setting explosives in the tunnel to blow up bedrock. One noticed a growing fissure in the concrete sprayed onto the excavation surface, and was evacuating when the earth collapsed and sediment hit the right leg of a man in his 50s who reportedly suffered minor injuries.

       While a detailed cause is being investigated, it is said that in the recent case the excavated surface collapsed naturally before any explosions were detonated, unlike the previous Oct. 27 accident where the collapse came after an explosion.

       JR Central explained that "work was done in compliance with national guidelines," and that it will suspend construction in the area until safety is confirmed. The company will also have employees present at other areas' construction sites, and work toward providing thorough instruction. It stated that it will "investigate the cause and make efforts to prevent a recurrence."

       (Japanese original by Shiho Sakai, Nagoya News Center)

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