WORCESTER, Mass. — The man who drove his truck right into a sinkhole in Worcester says he was just trying to get out of a traffic jam.
Sky25 captured the video of a white truck smashing right into a sinkhole created by a massive water main break in Greendale Tuesday afternoon.
“[There were] no cars on the street or anything. It looked like a little puddle,” Vince McCue told Boston 25 News in a phone call Wednesday.
He could not have been more wrong. What he thought was a small puddle turned out to be a lot worse.
"I actually sped up to go through it," McCue explained.
He told us he was at the Greendale Mall Tuesday afternoon when a giant water main broke, sending water all over that section of Worcester.
The mess tied up traffic and he could not get out of the parking lot.
“It was all gridlock, went one way it was all water,” McCue said.
So he arrived at an intersection where there were a couple of orange barrels about 20 feet apart.
“I knew that went on to the highway, so I proceeded that way,” he said.
Seconds later, the road gave out and the ground swallowed his truck.
“I was like oh no, it could have turned out worse. Good thing I have an old truck with wind up windows and no A/C, because if I had electric windows with A/C, it could have been a different turnout,” he said.
As the cab quickly filled with water, McCue climbed out onto the roof.
“They're telling me not to jump or swim, they were like, ‘wait for the firetruck,’ and I'm like, ‘do you know how much traffic there is?’ I'm not waiting for the firetruck," he said.
Eventually, a police officer and some Department of Public Works employees formed a human chain and pulled him to safety.
McCue told us he has a cut on his head and he may have re-injured his arm, which was already hurt.
MORE: Roads flooded, cars submerged after water main break in Greendale