Woman’s car is engulfed by sinkhole after water main leak in SW Detroit

SOUTHWEST DETROIT – Neighbors say they’ve had rivers of running water down Lexington Street in southwest Detroit since Monday.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department says it was alerted to the problem Wednesday (May 22) and sent a crew out to assess the situation and have the water main scheduled for repair.

What nobody knew was that the 12-inch main, installed in 1902, had likely been leaking for weeks.

Thursday, a woman was driving down Lexington when her car was swallowed by a massive sinkhole that opened.

Witnesses grabbed their phones to record in disbelief.

Some, like Jimena Ramos’ uncle, ran to help.

“The lady she was driving by all of a sudden it just caved in, and then they were just about to get in the car, but they saw what happened and went to help,” Ramos said.

Neighbors say the woman driver appeared unhurt. DWSD got out here to begin the repair.

“Based on the hole and the void underneath, this has been running for quite some time, said DWSD Deputy Director Sam Smalley.

It wasn’t caught because the water found a path out through the sewer, only bubbling to the surface this week.

Smalley says it’s a 12-inch main installed in 1902. For now, Lafayette W near Green N remains closed for repair work.