Police were searching the offices today of the company operating an expressway tunnel where hundreds of concrete ceiling slabs collapsed onto moving vehicles below, killing nine people.
Those killed in Sunday's tragedy were travelling in three vehicles along the 4.7-kilometre Sasago Tunnel, about 80 kilometres west of Tokyo. The transport ministry has ordered inspections of 49 other highway and road tunnels of similar construction around the mountainous country. The tunnel, on a highway that links the capital to central Japan, opened in 1977.
About a dozen uniformed police were shown on television entering the headquarters of Central Japan Expressway Co. early today, toting cardboard and plastic boxes.
Police and the highway operator are investigating why the concrete slabs in the Sasago Tunnel collapsed. An inspection of the tunnel's roof in September found nothing amiss.
