Nottinghamshire Sinkhole 'Sucked' Car And Driver Across Road

Woman Attempts To Drive Over Puddle, Ends Up In Sinkhole

A driver has told how a sinkhole created by a burst water pipe "sucked the car across the road" in Nottinghamshire.

Sally Hall said she was attempting to drive through an overflowing drain in Epperstone around 6.45am on Sunday when the "frightening" incident occurred.

Hall told the BBC how water came "flooding in over my knees", before she clambered to safety.

Sally Hall's car was sucked into a sinkhole after she drove through what she thought was an overflowing drain in Nottinghamshire

She told the broadcaster: "It was quite dark and there was a puddle of water. I thought it was a drain overflowing so went to drive through it.

"Then all of a sudden the car was sucked across the road and I ended up in the hole in the road.

"The water came flooding in over my knees and eventually the water was above the dashboard."

Hall said it was "fairly hard to escape" as her car kept locking and unlocking itself. She eventually escaped out of the passenger side of the vehicle and was not thought to have suffered any injuries.

A burst water pipe was said to have caused the sinkhole

The fault had caused water supply issues in the village and wider areas, including Bingham and Radcliffe-on-Trent, Severn Trent Water (STW) said. The water company said the sinkhole in the road was an "extreme example" of what happens when a large pipe bursts.

The car getting stuck in the hole had "complicated" repair works, a STW spokesman said. He added that it had since been removed.

Gerald Douglas, who lives opposite the sinkhole, told the BBC the fault sounded like "an explosion" and said the flow of water "was extreme".

Up to 20,000 homes are said to have been affected by the burst pipe, including East Bridgford, Upper Saxondale and Flintham.

Car sucked into sinkhole in Nottinghamshire

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