Sinkhole swallows up SUV in New York street

updated 12:32 p.m. ET March 27, 2006

NEW YORK - A city street collapsed under a sport 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 injures but was taken to a hospital for treatment of shock, said Fire Department spokesman Brian Conlon.

The vehicle was barely visible from street level inside the 12-foot-wide hole, partially in a pedestrian crosswalk in Brooklyn. It was resting atop a gas main and crews had to wait for the gas to be turned off before removing it, said Ian Michaels, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection.

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, Michaels said.

“It’s unlikely that the only part of the roadway that was damaged was that car-shaped hole,” he said.

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