'I've Got To Get Out' Thought Officer Whose SUV Dropped In Sinkhole
SHERIDAN, Colo. (CBS4) - A Sheridan police officer who was driving his department SUV early Friday morning says there was no warning when a sinkhole suddenly formed underneath his vehicle.
One minute Officer Greg Miller was driving at about 35 miles an hour down the road and the next minute his patrol car crashed to a dead stop and was dropping into the ground, which was sinking under it.
"It's something I've never experienced in my career in law enforcement. I've never even seen it. To where a full car went into a sinkhole. It was a crazy experience," said Miller, who only suffered a minor injury to his leg in the incident.
Miller was headed eastbound on West Oxford Avenue at 2:15 a.m. when the pavement suddenly sunk under the SUV at the intersection with South Natches Court.
"I'm driving down the road, routine patrol, next thing I know, the car hits into the sinkhole and goes down, and the dust, the dirt's flying around. I don't really know what just happened to me," he said.
It was dark, but the SUV's headlights and nearby streetlights helped him see a little bit.
"Then I look, I see the dirt, I see the rushing water going around the car. The only thing I could think of was: 'I've got to get out.' "
The SUV had dropped nearly 15 feet down into the ground, and Miller said he was worried it might sink further and that water in the sinkhole might fill up.
"It was just a frantic thing to get out of that situation," he said.
Miller then got off his seat belt off. He couldn't get his door open, so he reached up, grabbed the rail on top of the SUV and pulled himself out through the driver's side window.
After that he was able to stand up on the roof of the SUV, grab onto the stable pavement above and pull himself out.
Miller said he was limping when he got out but was able to wave an oncoming driver out of the way so their car wouldn't also fall in the hole.
Shortly afterwards another police officer arrived.
As Miller was sharing his story with CBS4 next to the sinkhole, debris could still be seen on the road next to the hole from the crash of the front of the SUV into the pavement.
The SUV was removed from the hole later on Friday morning and appeared to be a complete loss.
It will take at least a week to repair the pipe and then the road. The break apparently formed after a storm water pipe under the road broke. Sheridan Public Works believes the excessive rain is to blame.
"All the water, all the erosion, it just found a way through the pipe, created what's called a whirlpool around it and then it just creates a vacuum, sucks in all the dirt into the pipe and just causes a huge sinkhole," said Sheridan Public Works spokesman Randy Mourning.
The intersection of West Oxford Avenue and South Natches Court remains closed but one lane in each direction was expected to open Friday evening. That's located just west of Santa Fe Drive in the south Denver metro area.
