Northern Ontario man describes shock of driving into a sinkhole
Mike Fortin of Timmins has had a rough couple of days. He was coming home during the wee hours of Monday morning after being away for the weekend.
Only three driveways away from his Bonaventure Drive home, Fortin drove through what he thought was a puddle.
Sinkhole in the daylight on Bonaventure Street in Timmins. June 20/22 (Timmins Police Service)
It wasn't a puddle.
"I turned the corner driving towards my house, the whole front end of the car just ...," he said.
The car plunged, front-end first, into a hole in the asphalt.
Fortin said his car was submerged, killing his engine as water filled his car up to his waist.
Getting a little concerned for his safety, he called 911 and managed to get a window open.
"I put my legs out on the windowsill and I'm feeling around 'cause it’s all water around me," Fortin said.
"I wanted to make sure that I had some ground to step on and even at that I’m hanging on to the edge of the car and I’m feeling around and still wasn’t touching any ground. So, I said, 'I ain’t jumping out cause God knows what will happen then.' I said, 'I don’t know how big this hole is.'"
Emergency crews soon arrived to help.
Officials with the city said the sinkhole was created because a watermain break in the neighbourhood compromised the roadway.
"So when watermain breaks occur, it does, at times, wash out some of the ground material under the asphalt and that's what happened there," said Scott Tam, manager of environmental services and public utilities for the City of Timmins.
"Washed a little bit out, compromised the road and unfortunately, the integrity of the asphalt was very brittle."
"It’s a cautionary tale to be careful in any area that you’re travelling through," said Marc Depatie, communications coordinator for the Timmins Police Service.
"A puddle might not have a bottom to it, so you have to be careful in those circumstances."
"I mean, I saw water, but ... you see puddles and you don’t get out of the car to feel if you can drive through it," said Fortin.
He said he's happy he survived the experience without any serious injuries, but added his car is likely a write-off.
Fortin said he's now looking forward to having a shower since the water has also been shut off in his neighbourhood while city crews repair the watermain.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.