It’s the pits!
A massive sinkhole nearly swallowed a mid-size sedan in Bushwick on Thursday morning.
Crumbling asphalt suddenly imploded into an 8-by-16-foot wide, and 12-feet-deep chasm on Evergreen Avenue near Decatur Street around 8 a.m. on Aug. 1, which left a Chevy four-door and its passengers teetering on the brink, according to a photo taken by Bushwick resident Mario Kaiser, and posted on social media by his wife Guillén Kaiser.
Fortunately, the car’s occupants managed to escape their vehicle and the sinkhole unscathed, according to a local pol.
“NYPD is on scene, and reports the vehicle featured in the reported photos was occupied and occupants self-evacuated,” Councilman Rafael Espinal (D–Bushwick) said in an emailed statement.
City officials are blaming the cave-in on a ruptured sewage line running underneath Evergreen Avenue, and a repair team is currently working to mend the busted infrastructure, according to Edward Timbers, a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection.
Meanwhile, nearby residents have not suffered loss of water, or sewage service as a result of the collapse, and city environmental sleuths are investigating the cause of the breakdown, according to Timbers.
Espinal nonetheless slammed the city for not properly maintaining its infrastructure and called on urban planners to confirm the integrity of nearby roadways.
“The city’s infrastructure needs to be our top priority in city planning,” said Espinal. “We need a full study of the integrity of our roads. Luckily no one was severely injured, but it’s safe to say that a sinkhole of this size is anyone’s worst nightmare.”
