SUV Swallowed by City Street Sinkhole Caused by Water Main Break; Driver Treated for Shock
A sports utility vehicle is stuck in a sinkhole in the Brooklyn section of New York after a water main break caused the street to give way Monday, March 27, 2006. The driver of the vehicle was not seriously injured, according to the fire department. (AP Photo/Shiho Fukada)
NEW YORK Mar 27, 2006 (AP)— A city street collapsed under a sports utility vehicle early Monday, leaving the vehicle nose down into a deep sinkhole that officials said was caused by a water main break.
The driver of the SUV escaped without serious injuries but was taken to a hospital for treatment of shock, said Fire Department spokesman Brian Conlon.
From street level, the vehicle was barely visible inside the 12-foot-wide hole Monday morning. It came to rest atop a gas main, which was capped off by KeySpan Corp., and workers were able to remove the SUV by the early afternoon, said Andrew Troisi, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management.
The damage to the street was probably more extensive than was visible, since water leaking from the 8-inch main could have been washing away soil beneath the street for days, said Ian Michaels, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection.
"It's unlikely that the only part of the roadway that was damaged was that car-shaped hole," he said.
Michaels said emergency contractors would break up the road to determine the extent of the damage. Part of a subway line running beneath the road was also temporarily shut down.
He said HOLE