Edmonton, Alberta — Just when you thought your childhood fear of quicksand had passed—your car has been consumed by the earth.
That is what four Edmonton residents are asking themselves after a sinkhole opened up in the parking lot of a south-end Infiniti dealership on Tuesday.
Owner of the neighbouring Mercedes-Benz Heritage Valley dealership, Lucky Uppal told CTV News Edmonton that all things considered, he is lucky the hole didn’t open up any closer, or else his entire showroom would be in the pit.
“Looked at the camera around midnight. You can see them slowly collapsing into the ground,” said Uppal.
The sinkhole consumed four vehicles: two new, one used and one belonging to a customer.
A recovery professional who assisted the dealership on Tuesday told media that the hole was likely caused by an overflow of the underground stormwater tank that washed away the earth beneath the parking lot, causing the pavement to give way.
“This is very rare. It’s a big one and luckily there’s only four in there and not a whole parking lot,” said Dale Jackson of Cliffs Towing.
The Edmonton Power Corporation (EPCOR) was on scene to assess the risks posed by the sinkhole, but ruled that because it formed on private property the dealership is obligated to clean up the damage itself.
Have any shop owners out there ever had something like this happen on their property? Do you have any experience with unusual property risks like this? Let us know in the comments below.
One Response
That is a lot of soil to “wash away”. Also, all the soil must of “washed away” overnight because the hole is 3-4 ft deep. If this soil was being carried away through cracks in the the pipes, the parking lot settlement would have been detected a long time ago. It seems more likely that the underground detention system referenced in the article collapsed. Unfortunately, that is not uncommon.