A San Francisco sinkhole opened beneath an Uber driver and his SUV during rush hour traffic on Tuesday, requiring firefighters to rescue a trapped family he was taking to the airport.
The sinkhole measured 12 feet long by 5 feet wide and was 9 feet deep,
KNTV-TV reported. A broken sewer line caused the sinkhole to form on Mission Street at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. No one was hurt.
Uber driver Jose Santana was driving the SUV when it sank,
KGO-TV reported.
"We kind of thought it was a flat tire and then we saw all these people clicking videos and stuff and the cops came and they said, 'Just don't move,'" passenger Radhika Achuthan told the station. She said it was "shocking" to see the giant hole after the vehicle was secured and the family was finally able to get out.
Witnesses watched and recorded the ordeal.
“The people had to stay inside to make sure the weight didn’t distribute unevenly where the car would fall farther into the hole,” witness Von Bellows told
KPIX-TV.
The collapsed sewer line dates to 1875 and is made of brick.
“Usually with sewers that old, age is likely the cause of the break,” San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokesman Charles Sheehan said, according to the
Los Angeles Times.
Twitter users were concerned.
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