A snowplow was swallowed by a sinkhole in a road in Lopatcong, New Jersey, at about 7.30 am local time on Tuesday 17 February 2015. The driver of the plow is reported to have been injured in the incident, but to have been able to escape from the hole unaided, though specialist equipment was needed to remove the plow. The hole is not thought to have presented any danger to local residents, though people living close to the incident were recommended to stay at home and not to take cars out of their drives.
Rescue team extracting the a snowplow from a sinkhole in Lopatcong, New Jersey, on Tuesday 17 February 2015. NJ.com.
Sinkholes are generally caused by water eroding soft limestone or
unconsolidated deposits from beneath, causing a hole that works its way
upwards and eventually opening spectacularly at the surface. Where there
are unconsolidated deposits at the surface they can infill from the
sides, apparently swallowing objects at the surface, including people,
without trace.
On this occasion the incident appears to have been caused by a burst water main beneath the road. A number of residents in the area reported losing water supplies the night before the incident, and it is likely that water escaping from a fractured pipeline eroded sediments away beneath the road, causing it to collapse beneath the weight of the snowplow.
See also...
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Part of East 26th Street Collapsed onto the CSX rail line, which carries containers to Seagirt Marine Terminal
from about...
Homes evacuated after sinkhole opens up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Seven homes were evacuated as a precaution after a sinkhole opened up in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Thursday 20 March 2014, and several...
Car and driver swallowed by Ohio sinkhole. An Ohio woman and her car were swallowed by a 3 m sinkhole that opened
up before her on North Detroit Avenue in Toledo in the northwest of the
state on Wednesday 3 July 2013. Pamela Knox, 60, saw the hole start to
open up beneath the car in front of her, which was able to accelerate
away, but was unable...
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