Truck stuck in sinkhole outside Rivier Academy

Bohachik was not hurt. She was alone in the vehicle at the time.

It was difficult for her to get out of the truck as well. Bohachik was close to climbing out of the window, she said.

“The door only opened, about, not very far.”

A tow truck was at the scene at around 9 a.m., and pulled the truck’s wheel out of the sinkhole, revealing a hole so deep that a full-sized garbage bin could fit inside of it.

As for how such a sinkhole could give way on a city street without warning – the answer is because it was the location of a water main leak that sprouted this winter.

Operations manager with the department of public works Alain Trudel said instead of fixing the leak, the City shut the water off, since there was no one that section of line feeds water to. He said the plan was to fix it in the spring when the ground thawed out.

He said the City does that on occasion when there are no service interruptions.

The sinkhole developed from the washout underground before the line was shut down, and the dirt around it “sloughed in,” Trudel said. He said staff will be on site Tuesday to fill in the hole until the City can get repair the line.

There likely weren’t markers on the road, “not likely until we knew there was a cavity there,” according to Trudel.

“If we don’t know there’s a cavity there or a sinkhole, yeah, no, it wouldn’t have been marked. We only mark it once we know there is something that is there.”

When it comes to the City’s liability for damage a vehicle sustains in an incident such as this, it depends on the situation.

“If we knew there was an issue there or there was a sinkhole there and we didn’t do anything about it and somebody drove into it, for sure, we have some responsibility. But if we don’t know there’s an issue there, then usually the City doesn’t know is occurring,” Trudel said.

He added that once the City does know about the situation, it has a responsibility to make sure the area is secure. In the case of a sinkhole, the City has to make sure the area is barricaded and that people are aware of it.

Incidents similar to Tuesday morning’s in Prince Albert have been occurred elsewhere in recent weeks. As reported by the Canadian Press at the beginning of April, a Toronto driver had to climb out of the window of his Jaguar after it sank into the ground in a parking lot. Then, according to the New York Daily News, last week, two New York firefighters were injured when they tried to get their firetruck out of a small sinkhole in Brooklyn. The sinkhole swallowed one of the vehicle’s wheels.

Two years ago in Prince Albert, sinkholes appeared along 15th Street, which were caused by deteriorating sewer pipes.

At Bishop Pascal Place, Bohachik’s friend, school and City staff each peered into the sinkhole that formed.

When it came to explaining the incident to her mother, Bohachik was a bit nervous about it.

“I didn’t know what she would think, but it wasn’t my fault, so you, know, what can you do?”

She said this incident won’t scare her away from driving.

“I might be scared to park here though,” she said with a laugh.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

Truck stuck in sinkhole outside Rivier Academy

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