You are driving in your car when the front end begins to sink into the road, plummeting into a sinkhole that seconds before wasn’t there.
Two women ran from their vehicle while another was trapped inside hers as a 12-foot-wide, 14-foot-deep and 65-yard-long sinkhole took form Thursday at 1:25 p.m. between Oak and 19th streets, according to Sgt. Scott McDonald of the Bakersfield Police Department.
“Driving down the road, you never know what is going to happen,” said McDonald.
Rosalinda Taylor, 41, of Arvin, and her passenger, Irene Valos, 55, of Bakersfield were driving west in Taylor’s 2000 Jeep Cherokee on 19th from Oak Street when they slowed down due to water in the road. That’s when the front of the vehicle began to sink. The women immediately exited the vehicle and began running down the street as they saw the sinkhole rapidly form and their vehicle fall into it, according to the Bakersfield Police Department’s news release.
Ann Savage, 60, an employee at Jim Burke Ford, was coming back from her lunch break making a U-turn in the Jim Burke Ford parking lot when she drove directly into the sinkhole. Savage was trapped inside her vehicle but was able, with the assistance of firefighters, to safely exit. She suffered no injuries. Savage told fellow employees she wanted to stay and watch her 1996 Ford Thunderbird be pulled from the hole but was taken to a physician as a precautionary measure.
Along with the Jeep Cherokee and Thunderbird, two brand-new Ford F-350 and F-250 trucks also fell into the hole. All of the vehicles had to be lifted from the hole with a large crane. The trucks were lifted from the sinkhole, started up and driven away.
The 65-yard-long sinkhole was the result of a corroded underground 12-foot-wide steel canal, which gave way. The city has had problems with pipes corroding and causing small sinkholes n the past but they have never had one this large before, according to Bakersfield Public Works Director Raul Rojas. Rojas said that the Public Works Department does inspect pipes for corrosion but would be taking more care in inspecting pipes of the same age for corrosion.
The sinkhole runs from 19th Street through the Jim Burke Ford parking lot to Oak Street. Parts of 19th street will be closed until the entire corroded underground canal is replaced. Rojas could only speculate that it would be at least a month until the work is done.