A car had to be winched out of a sinkhole after its front end became trapped in Hobart in Lake County, Indiana, on the morning of Wednesday 11 April 2018. City engineers had observed subsidence of the road earlier in the week, and made arrangements for repairs to begin, but the road collapsed before these were started, trapping the car.
Car trapped by a sinkhole on Lincoln Street, in Hobart Indiana, on 11 April 2018. Hobart Police Department.
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.
However in this occasion the sinkhole is believed to have been caused by a ruptured sewerage pipe, which washed away unconsolidated sediments beneath the road, leading to the collapse.
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