Truck stumbles into HCMC sinkhole

Truong Van Cuong, 45, had just driven past Phu My Bridge at 5 a.m. His truck was on Vo Chi Cong Street when the ground gave way and pulled the two front wheels down under.

“Luckily I was driving slowly so I wasn’t hurt,” he said.

At the scene, there was a hole two meters deep and three meters wide and filled with water. There are multiple cracks near it.

Authorities later barricaded the road section and re-routed traffic to fix the problem.

According to the Department of Transport, the hole might have been caused by a leakage of the drainage system, causing water erosion. Authorities are trying to find an exact cause.

Vo Chi Cong Street, which spans 4.5 kilometers, connects Phu My Bridge with HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway. It has been opened to traffic since 2009, and upgraded once in 2017 at VND183 billion ($7.9 million).

HCMC is no stranger to sinkholes. Last year, a three-meter wide hole appeared in front of a house in Thu Duc City, and in 2020, the Phan Van Tri-Le Thi Hong intersection in Go Vap District saw trucks falling into sinkholes twice due to broken water pipes.