UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — A water-filled sinkhole in Upper Marlboro, Maryland shut down South Osborne Road, Crain highway and swallowed a car on Wednesday. The incident caused the driver minor injuries, officials said.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission and Public Works was on-scene assessing repairs to the 30-inch broken water main. It took crews four hours to drain the sinkole and hoist the car out of the hole.
WSSC spokesperson Luis Maya said that the accident was caused by a person who drove through work zone barrier cones. Whether the choice to drive through the cones was purposeful or accidental is currently unknown.
"People have to respect that work zone and we preach that all the time. If you see cones and our crews, please be careful," Maya advised. "Please drive carefully and follow any directions that we give."
Nearly all of Upper Marlboro is currently affected by the water main break in some capacity, WSSC confirmed, which amounts to about 50 people without water. The company has a service area that spans nearly 1,000 square miles in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties and serves 1.8 million residents.
"It's going to be a long repair," Maya said. "We expect this to go into the middle of the night."
Almost one year ago, Manassas Park, Virginia also saw a sinkhole wash away a car due to heavy floods in the area. No one was in the vehicle, officials said.
About 400 residents in the area of Moseby Drive in Manassas Park couldn't get out of their community because of the road collapse, caused by severe weather.
There are about 80 townhouses and 16 condominiums in the Moseby Ridge Development, police said. Resident cars were parked along Moseby Drive and crews had to tow away a few cars in the area.
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