Sinkhole

      My son’s car was in the shop, so he borrowed my car to get to his after school job flipping burgers at the local fast food joint. I watched him back out of the driveway and head down the street. I started walking back up the driveway as he drove down the street. Suddenly I heard a loud cracking sound. I turned to look just in time to see my car disappear into a large sinkhole that had opened up and swallowed my car with my son inside. I ran screaming up the street to see if he was okay. He was climbing out of the sunroof as I approached the sinkhole. The car had dropped about eight feet down a hole. It looked like it might be an old mining tunnel.

        My son was okay. A little banged up and scared, but okay. My neighbors had run over as well and had dialed 911 for us. We told my son to stay put until the rescue crew came. No sense risking the edge of the hole crumbling more as he tried to get out of there. The fire truck would have a ladder or something to help get him safely out of that mess. A fire truck arrived within minutes, as well as police and an ambulance. After assessing the situation, the firemen called for a crane to come and pull the car out of the hole.  They were able to get my son out of the hole safely without the sides of it giving way any more than it already had.

         They confirmed my suspicion that an old mining tunnel had caved in due to all the flooding that we had the last year. My town is built over an old mining site from the early 1900s. It was closed up and sealed years ago, but tunnels still riddle this area.

         The crane was able to get my car out of the hole. It would probably have to be totaled, although it did not look like it was too badly damaged. It had dropped straight down into the hole. The frame seemed intact, but who knows what the suspension was like.

         The paramedics looked over my son who seemed to be okay. They bandaged up some scrapes, but he had suffered no major injuries. He was mostly just shaken up from the scare of having the road drop out from under him. That is not something you expect to happen to you.

         The city road crews came and looked over the hole. They were going to need to fill that big hole up, so no other cars would be unexpectedly swallowed up whole.