cool pic

this is a good pic i found on the net

it is from:

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050825/NEWS/508250512

 

An Upman's Towing truck driver chains the Honda SUV after extracting it from the 9-foot sinkhole on Honore Avenue. The accident and its aftermath caused an estimated $100,000 in damage and a lot of worry -- officials thought a body might be in the submerged vehicle.

 

 

Crash creates 9-foot sinkhole

Driver leaves SUV, walks away after hitting hydrant on Honore

BY KATHLEEN CULLINAN

MANATEE COUNTY -- A Bradenton woman drove into a fire hydrant Tuesday night and simply walked away as water spewed forth, authorities say.

She told no one, and left her Honda sport utility vehicle in the spreading pool of water, which eventually caused a section of Honore Avenue north of University Parkway to cave in.

By morning, a 9-foot-deep sinkhole engulfed the SUV. Murky water was pooling on Honore by about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, when officials started getting calls about it, a sheriff's deputy said.

The accident and its aftermath caused an estimated $100,000 in damage and a lot of worry when officials found the Honda submerged in the sinkhole and weren't sure if anyone was inside.

Authorities said Lisa M. Ferrier, 29, of the 5000 block of Water Oak Drive in Bradenton, drove right past the accident site on her way to work the next morning, again without stopping.

Officers later tracked Ferrier down at work, Deputy Ned Foy said, and charged her with careless driving and failure to report an accident.

"You look at all the labor involved in this thing," Foy said Wednesday. "They're going to be working well into the night."

Ferrier was driving the Honda SUV northbound on Honore at about 11 p.m. Tuesday when she hit a parked trailer, then the fire hydrant, authorities said.

She has a previous DUI conviction, according to Sarasota court records. Authorities said Wednesday it was probably too late to determine if alcohol was a factor in the accident. Attempts to reach Ferrier for comment were unsuccessful.

Water officials spotted the top of the Honda in the sinkhole when they arrived, Foy said.

A fireman entered the hole and found no one in the vehicle. The Honda was filled to the dashboard with sand, he said.

Water officials shut the hydrant's leaking pipe, and eventually the water drained from the crater, exposing the SUV.

It took a heavy-duty truck from Upman's Towing to extract the SUV from the sinkhole without breaking a yellow gas line it had landed on.

A tow-truck driver stood near the sinkhole after the SUV was loaded. "All in a day's work," Chris Ecker said.