California road sinkhole swallowing a vehicle for second time in 2 weeks

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California road sinkhole swallowing a vehicle for second time in 2 weeks

A sinkhole in a collapsed road in California swallowed a vehicle for the second time in two weeks after a driver ignored road closure signs, according to law enforcement.

A two-lane road near Tracy, a city in the Central Valley, collapsed earlier this month after weeks of destructive storms that wreaked havoc across the state. The damage and signs warning of the road closure didn't stop drivers from attempting to travel on Kasson Road, which commuters used to use to travel to nearby Stockton, Manteca and Modesto, according to the local California highway patrol CHP office.

There are concrete rails along the road. It takes a little bit of effort to get past it, said Jesse Skinner, a CHP public information officer.

The office knows there are at least two vehicles whose drivers got stuck in the collapsed roadway. A truck fell into a hole over the weekend, prompting police to issue a citation to the driver for traveling on the closed road.

The authorities are growing increasingly exasperated over motorists disregarding the warnings. The CHP office wrote on Facebook that they can't make this stuff up. This was 100 percent preventable. There is no excuse. The signs are clear, visible, and unobstructed. Days before that, the driver of a Volkswagen sedan tried to drive down the road and ended up in the hole. We are at a loss for words. The office wrote if there were signs and barriers that could have prevented this, if only there were signs.

A different car had ignored the signs and drove through the closure shortly after the road was closed, but before it split and sunk.

The office has published information about alternative routes, but has not responded to calls about drivers who ignored warnings. Recent storms hit the area hard, closing some roads for the first time, including Kasson Road.

Skinner said it was not a closure we had set up in that area before. We don't have an officer who can handle the closure the whole time.