We tend to talk a lot about sinkholes. Who can forget the legendary Bowling Green, Kentucky, sinkhole that ate a priceless collection of Chevrolet Corvettes at the National Corvette Museum in 2014? Sinkholes pop up a lot on streets and near houses, swallowing up cars and possessions. One sinkhole in Brooklyn with refined taste ignored all the taxis and cars around it and decided to swallow up a man in the crosswalk instead.
Before we go any further, we would like to clarify that we don’t think it is funny when people fall in sinkholes. Several people have been maimed and killed by these suddenly-appearing obstacles. This particular case struck us as a bit odd just because of how specific this sinkhole was.
Man falls into, gets leg stuck in sinkhole while crossing street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn https://t.co/5XegrwDdoD pic.twitter.com/KvGgjTKK9H
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) August 29, 2017
A Brooklyn man named Stephen Suarez works at an auto repair shop and was crossing the nearby street on Tuesday when the pavement under his right foot collapsed and dropped him to the ground. His whole leg was trapped underground with his hips flush with the pavement and his left leg folded under him. While you might think that Suarez would be able to wiggle out, he hit his tailbone pretty hard on the pavement when he fell, making movement painful.*
Three rescuers from FDNY were able to help lift Stephen from the ground and free his foot from the sinkhole sans shoe. Once he was removed, it was easier to see just how small the hole was and how the ground around it puckered downward (but was stable). It’s still blowing our minds that this sinkhole only grabbed his whole leg and not the rest of him (or a passing car).
There is no word tonight as to what caused the sinkhole, but they are usually attributed to water main breaks.
News Source: Mashable and Gothamist
*Editor Rebecca can verify that tailbone injuries don’t sound too bad, but they are actually pretty debilitating.
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