BAYTOWN, Texas – A delivery man for the Baytown Sun found himself on the front page of the news Friday after his car fell into a massive sinkhole.
It happened just before 4 a.m. on Thursday morning on Fortinberry Street. Thomas Pena was just starting his delivery route when he came across a pothole that turned into a sinkhole. “I’m still in shock because it’s such a big hole,” Pena said.
He said the company vehicle he was driving tilted downward into the hole. Once water started coming into the vehicle, he knew he had to get out. He managed to escape from a window just in time. “I landed on the ground and I turned to look at the car and the car literally just goes in and then just takes a nosedive,” Pena said.
The 21-year-old snapped a picture of his car submerged in the water. Eventually, a wrecker truck pulled it out. Pena did not suffer any injuries and even continued his newspaper route that morning, in a different vehicle of course. “People need their papers and someone had to do it, right?” Pena said.
According to the City of Baytown, the sinkhole was caused by an 8-inch water line that blew out. Friday afternoon crews were on site filling the hole up with dirt. The road is now back open. The city does not anticipate any further damage.