Residents were forced from their homes after a sinkhole opened up a Pennsylvania street.
A utility truck dropped into a sinkhole — formed due to a water main break — and landed on a gas line late Thursday night, leading officials to evacuate neighbors in the Bethlehem community.
Authorities evacuated residents living within 300 feet of the Norfolk Drive and Hampton Road intersection around 12:30 a.m. Friday — about an hour after the PPL Electric Utilities truck dropped into the gaping hole along the 1800 block of Hampton Road.
"He was sitting on a soft part of the soil," said Bethlehem Water and Sewer director Edward Boscola. "Even though the road bed is still in tact, the sinkhole opened up a void underneath the road bed. So when a heavy truck — like a PPL utility truck — parks there, it basically sinks in the hole."
The vehicle came to rest on a 4-inch gas line — which led to the evacuation so crews could determine whether it broke, according to officials.
The investigation showed the gas line remained intact and there was no leak.
The sinkhole opened around 11:15 p.m., nearly three hours after crews began investigating a water main break in the area, according to reports.
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The break was located at 10:25 p.m. Crews worked to repair it until the sinkhole swallowed the truck and then resumed once the vehicle was pulled from the hole, The Morning Call reports.
The driver, who was in the vehicle during the accident, was not hurt.By Friday afternoon the sinkhole had sucked up a driveway and threatened the foundation of a home.
Boscola said they found significant damage to at least one local home where the driveway buckled.
