‘All of a sudden, I was in a hole’: Car falls into sinkhole in Wisconsin

By Kendall Keys

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    WHITEFISH BAY, Wisconsin (WISN) — One driver’s holiday plans took a nosedive, straight into a sinkhole in Whitefish Bay.

“Well, this will be a Christmas I’ll remember,” the driver said in a Whitefish Bay police officer’s body camera video.

A water main break made the road unstable on Consaul Place near Lake View Avenue. Whitefish Bay police said crews put up road closed signs, but the driver went around them.

“I wasn’t paying attention,” the driver said.

He was able to get out of the car before officers arrived. The officer’s body camera video captured his reactions.

“All of a sudden, I was in a hole,” the driver said.

“We had a water main break, so there was water rushing down the street. And when I came out to look at that, I noticed, as you couldn’t help but notice, a car in a sinkhole, right on Consaul place,” Dulcie Shoener said.

Neighbors came outside to see the spectacle.

“I was in disbelief,” Shoener said. “I was first worried about the driver, but I saw that he had gotten out, and I saw him walking around. So he looked a little shook up, but otherwise, he was fine. He’d gotten out before it started sinking too much.”

It all happened in front of Shoener’s house.

“We’ve lived here 36 years and have never had a street issue like that, of course,” Shoener said.

It’s the second sinkhole in the village in the past year. In June, a large sinkhole at Big Bay Park swallowed up a sidewalk near Lake Michigan. On Thursday, crews were still working to repair the 30-foot deep hole.

“It’s funny, we were driving around on Christmas Eve looking at lights, and we talked about the sinkhole over there. And then my son said, were we prophesying the sinkhole here?” Shoener said.

Matthew Collins, director of public works for the village of Whitefish Bay, said the two are not related. The hole on Consaul Place was caused by the water main break, coupled with the weight of the car on the unstable pavement. The one at Big Bay Park happened after an underground pipe burst in a 90-year-old storm sewer.

Collins reminded drivers to pay attention to barricaded areas and obey signed work zones for their safety when crews are working on repairs.

“Water main breaks are common within many communities that operate a water utility, and we typically have a small handful of breaks and repairs throughout the year. Typically, these water main break repairs go unnoticed as long as vehicles don’t find their way into our work zones,” Collins said.

A tow truck eventually pulled the SUV out of the hole on Consaul Place and crews patched up the road.

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