One person has been confirmed dead after a sinkhole swallowed two cars in San Antonio, Texas on Sunday 4 December 2016. One of the vehicles drove into the hole, which was obscured by standing water, slightly before 5.30 pm, and the driver, described as a man of sixty was rescued by a passer by and treated in a nearby hospital. However a second car was found submerged upside down within the hole, and officials from the San Antonio Fire Department have now confirmed a body within this vehicle.
Officials from the San Antonio Fire Department assessing the sinkhole prior to attempting vehicle recovery. ABCKSAT12.
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 hole the hole is believed to have been caused by a ruptured sewer main, which leaked water that then washed away soft sediment beneath the road, undermining the road until it collapsed.
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