Sinkhole swallows truck in Hall County

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — A large truck will likely sit in a sinkhole until Wednesday. The sinkhole swallowed the truck in the parking lot of a Hall County car wash Tuesday.

The truck from Badger, which, ironically, performs digging and excavating tasks by using water to blast through dirt and rock, ended up with its entire cab and front tires hanging in the air.

"I thought a small plane maybe had crashed," one witness told Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach.

The driver was left unharmed.

The truck had been parked in the Diamond Auto Spa parking lot around 7:45 a.m., when the ground slowly gave way under its weight, likely from a busted storm drain culvert.

The city checked plans for when the car wash was built and learned it was about 20 years ago. There's a large metal pipe that runs all the way from where the truck currently is across the parking lot. The pipe is made of corrugated metal and is about 5 feet high.

Officials believe over time the pipe eroded and rusted, and the truck fell right on top of it.

Hall County firefighters responded and found a small diesel spill, but only a few gallons of fuel had leaked.

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"That could have been worse, so we're very fortunate with that," said Capt. Zachary Brackett, with Hall County Fire Services.

After pumping fuel from the truck, workers began to pump the truck's water tank to help get it out of the hole.

"The plan right now is to offload the water. This vehicle has 1,600 gallons in a tank on the back of it," Brackett told Gehlbach.

Firefighters hope that draining the fuel will make the truck light enough to lift from the hole, which is nearly 20 feet wide and 10 feet deep.

Cox Media Group