A couple driving home from Taco Bell were sent into a 12-foot sinkhole filled with water after the water-covered road crumbled beneath their Jeep.
Katlynn Bicknell and Kevin Noel survived a harrowing incident Friday evening when their car plunged into a sinkhole at the intersection of Washington Street and West 30th Street in the border city of Vancouver, Washington on their way home to Oregon.
The vehicle immediately began to fill with bubbling water and the couple struggled to open the door against the rushing water.
After managing to escape the car, they called 911 while watching their newly purchased vehicle disappear into the sinkhole.
“It felt like being in the theater, like being in a movie,” Bicknell said as she recounted the harrowing experience to a local news station. KPTV.
While driving home from Taco Bell, an Oregon couple was sent into a 12-foot sinkhole filled with water after the water-covered road crumbled beneath their Jeep.
Katlynn Bicknell and Kevin Noel were in the car Friday evening. “It felt like being in the theater, like being in a movie,” Bicknell said
The vehicle immediately began to fill with bubbling water and the couple struggled to open the door against the rushing water
Bicknell and Noel had fitted their car with heavy-duty tires to prepare for the muddy roads following a week of icy storms in the region.
After enjoying a midnight treat at Taco Bell, the couple took a detour on Fourth Plain Boulevard and turned onto West 30th Street, where the sinkhole was reported.
Brian Wilson, chief public works inspector for the City of Vancouver, explained that the sinkhole was caused by a water main leak from the 1940s. The damage likely had nothing to do with the weather, as reported by Oregon Live.
The couple didn’t know what was happening underground, but remembered seeing water on the road.
“We saw there was water on the road and we thought, ‘What is this?’ Bicknell said KKG8.
“As soon as we got in, we went straight into the hole, it felt like you were on a roller coaster as you went into the big canyon and the car just started filling with water,” she said.
Bicknell and Noel had fitted their car with heavy-duty tires to prepare for the muddy roads following a week of icy storms in the region
“We had seen there was water on the road, and we thought, ‘What is this?’” said Bicknell (pictured in 2016).
The front of the 3,000-pound Jeep Patriot plunged into the gaping hole, filling the passenger seat where Bicknell was sitting with water.
Bicknell tried to open the door to escape, but “the door went back violently,” she recalled.
‘My leg was still halfway up the car and hitting the side of the door and the rest of the car. By then Kevin was there to help me so he could get my leg free too.”
Noel reached from inside the car and pushed open the passenger door, allowing Bicknell to escape. He then climbed through the window to escape as well.
“He has a very calm mind, and so he was the one I needed in that situation,” Bicknell said, adding that she was relieved the car had manual windows.
“Our next vehicle will definitely have manual windows,” she said.
The front of the 3,000-pound Jeep Patriot plunged into the gaping hole, filling the passenger seat where Bicknell was sitting with water
Bicknell recalled the car sinking further and further as they stood on the side of the road waiting for emergency services
The couple immediately called 911 after escaping the drowning vehicle.
Bicknell recalled the car sinking further and further as they stood on the side of the road waiting for emergency services.
“It kept filling up with more and more water, as if we saw it go over the steering wheel, almost all the way to the rearview mirror,” Bicknell said.
‘It was a sleepless night; We didn’t get home until around 3:30 am and didn’t go to bed until around noon because we were still full of adrenaline,” she added.
She suffered a few bruises but was glad the incident “happened to us and not an elderly person,” she said.
Looking back on the incident, Bicknell said she has now added a window breaking tool to her car’s emergency kit.
She also gave advice to the public, urging them to remain calm during unexpected events.
“Just be vigilant and always watch for moving water, standing water, because you don’t know what’s underneath the road.”
Vancouver Public Works said sinkholes are possible, but not common. Maintenance crews repaired the water main and sinkhole within 12 hours.