'Stupid Mistake': Man Rescued From Sinkhole After Worcester Water Main Break
WORCESTER (CBS) – The driver whose truck got swallowed up by a sinkhole during Worcester's water main break Tuesday says he never thought it was that deep.
Vincent McCue can smile about it now, but it certainly wasn't amusing when his pickup went in nose first.
"I was like oh no I'm screwed," McCue said. "Stupid mistake, trying to get out of traffic I guess."
Indeed, trouble began when he tried to escape the gridlock around the massive water main break next to the Greendale Mall. He drove down a soggy access road, which despite commotion, he thought led away from the worst of it, until it was too late.
"It went right down into the water, like immediately it started filling up that's why I was out so quick," McCue said.
As a river gushed around him, help scrambled over.
"I climbed out the window, the DPW workers are just like 'Stay! Stay there don't move!' I'm like 'What do you mean? I'm sinking,'" McCue said.
A police officer eventually rescued McCue.
"So whoever that guy is I'm truly thankful for him," he said.
It turns out it was the police chief himself.
Wednesday night, workers were busy in the sinkhole that nearly swallowed McCue, replacing the broken pipe. The 24-inch water main that broke had an 18-foot long crack in it. The split unleashed a torrent of roughly seven million gallons.
"You know it could have been a lot worse," said McCue, who says he could do without the ridicule like he got when he went to see his truck at the tow yard. "He said 'You really are a bald idiot,'" McCue said.
Not the kind of thing you want to hear when your pickup's in two pieces.
