Car Falls Into Sinkhole In Kane County
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A mother and son were hurt when their car drove into a sinkhole that swallowed a portion of a rural road in Kane County on Tuesday morning.
WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports the sinkhole – likely caused by stormwater – was wider than the entire two-lane road where it opened, spanned at least 10 feet, and was deep enough to hide a car; which it did around 4 a.m.
Kane County Sheriff's Lt. Pat Gengler said a 41-year-old Elgin woman and her 15-year-old son were in a Ford Taurus on Thomas Road near McDonald Road in unincorporated Kane County near Burlington when the car fell into the sinkhole.
A pickup truck came along and drove over the car.
"The second vehicle drove right over the top of the first one," Gengler said. "There's no street lights out there, and the driver of that car said … he couldn't see the sinkhole, let alone the vehicle that was in it prior to driving over the top of them."
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Gengler said the Taurus was completely below grade level, so police couldn't see it either at first, until they got right up to the sinkhole.
"It's out there kind of in the middle of nowhere; not a lot of people around. So this is something that, a couple changes to the circumstances here and there, could have been real tragic," he said.
Firefighters had to cut the Taurus open to get the woman and her son out. They were taken to a hospital with relatively minor injuries. The pickup truck driver – a 25-year-old man from Elgin – also was treated at the scene.
