Two drivers in Omaha, Nebraska, found themselves in a frightening predicament Tuesday when the ground beneath their cars gave way.
The drivers were parked at an intersection’s stoplight when the sinkhole opened up and swallowed them, a sight that shocked witnesses, Fox 8 reported Wednesday.
No one was hurt and police said bystanders jumped into action to rescue the drivers trapped in the hole.
Video footage showed the moment the SUV and a pickup truck pulled up to the light, stopped, and waited for the green light as pedestrians moved in front of them.
Other cars pulled up in the lanes behind them, and moments later the roadway collapsed and the SUV and pickup truck plunged into the hole:
Video recorded from across the street showed a different angle when the sinkhole opened. The pickup truck’s driver escaped from the passenger door while neighbors helped the SUV’s driver climb out of the hole:
Jonathan Inman, who was driving the SUV, said the incident happened so fast and he quickly realized he needed to get out of the car to safety.
He said he is grateful everyone is okay because, “Had either of us been moving, had the hole sunk in the opposite direction, I think would have been much worse for both of us,” he told KETV:
Omaha City Engineer Austin Rowser said the sinkhole might have happened because of a pressurized water leak, according to WOWT.
“Ultimately it comes down to erosion because all pavement as you know, it’s not built to stand on its own, it has to have the support from the soil underneath it,” he said, adding, “One of the very important things on the repair side of it is that we make sure we find the entire void. Subsurface water can act in various strange ways. You can see a void but it could be connected by a small channel to another void.”
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