Vehicle swallowed by sinkhole in Boston, broken water main to blame

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A break in a 20-inch water main in Boston early Monday sent water rushing down a city street, formed a sinkhole that swallowed a vehicle, and flooded area basements, city officials said.

The burst pipe in the city's South End was reported at about 3:30 a.m., according to the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. The water main is about 150 years old, but was updated in the 1970s, the commission said.

The flood also buckled the roadway, which was closed to traffic.

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"It was a significant amount of water over a short period of time," commission spokesperson Dolores Randolph said. Service to area buildings was not affected and no one was hurt.

A worker stands over a sinkhole in a roadway in Boston's South End neighborhood. A break in a 20-inch water main sent water rushing down a city street, flooding area basements, and forming a sinkhole that a vehicle fell into.  (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The vehicle, seen in television video tilting into the sinkhole, was removed later in the morning.

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Sarah Donner heard the pre-dawn commotion outside and looked out to see her vehicle in the sinkhole.

"I saw the hole, and I was like, ‘Wait, wait, wait. My car is over there,’ " she told WCVB-TV. "It was just kind of a gradual pre-coffee awareness that my car was in a sinkhole."

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The water was shut off and construction crews responded to the area to fix the roadway.