Car left stranded in giant pothole

Many of us get that sinking feeling on the way to work. For this driver, however, the problem ran a little deeper.
As she made her way to her office, the ground opened up and swallowed her car.
Fortunately the motorist, who has not been named, was able to clamber out of the giant pothole, caused by a water main bursting below the road on the A320, between Woking and Chertsey in Surrey. 

But her silver Vauxhall Meriva was not so lucky, becoming submerged in the crater as tens of thousands of gallons of water gushed from the fractured pipe.
Paul Rimmer, who saw the incident today, said the leak washed away layers of soil beneath the road, causing it to cave in.
He added: ‘The driver managed to get out while stuck quite far down in the hole and she walked off to work, leaving engineers to haul out the car.
‘However, the car then just sank lower and lower and then it started to fill up with water. She had a very lucky escape.’
The large pipe erupted at about 5am, flooding the busy road.

The female motorist driving her hatchback had stopped her car after hearing a loud noise coming from the road.
In a matter of seconds, the road then gave way and swallowed her car up.

Police were called to the scene shortly afterwards and the road was then closed at around 7am.
The water was turned off by 8.30am, but the road remained shut on Wednesday lunchtime because of the substantial hole in the southbound carriageway.

Gordon Foat, who lives nearby saw the stricken silver Vauxhall Meriva wedged into the gap.
He said: 'There's a car which has been absorbed into the road, it just went in.
'Apparently a woman was driving along and heard a noise so she got out of her car to check it, and that's when it happened.'
The incident took place between the Six Crossroads roundabout in Woking and the McLaren Technology Centre roundabout at Martyrs Lane.

Police Inspector Roger Nield said: 'In order to get everybody straight we had to close the road which gridlocked the traffic.'
He added: 'When the water company come to repair it they will have to close the road for three or four days. The water has been turned off at the moment.' 

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