01 February 2023 , 15:22
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A giant sinkhole has swallowed a truck after the driver ignored warning signs and barriers - just days after a different vehicle did the same.
Police were left despairing after the two motorists got around the clear barriers and then drove straight into the mammoth hole.
The two-lane road in California, US, had collapsed after a wave of bad storms damaged the nearby drains.
Traffic officers lambasted the drivers saying they were at a "loss for words" and quipped: "If only there were signs and/or barriers that could have prevented this…"
Large concrete blocks had been placed across the road with large signs saying "road closed" dotted between them.
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The drivers involved ignored this and paid the price, getting their vehicles stuck down the sinkhole.
The signs and barricades warning drivers the road is closed (Facebook)By the time of the second incident, the police tempers were frayed. On their Facebook page, the Tracy California Highway Patrol wrote: "It happened again. We can’t make this stuff up.
"This was 100 per cent preventable. There is no excuse. The signs are clear, visible, and unobstructed."
They said the driver was given a citation for passing the road closure. They said the "signs and barricades are strategically placed for your safety."
Police advised drivers: "If you come across a road closure, turn around, and find a different route."
Netomie Cardoza, who lives by where the sinkhole is, said that they heard “this big crunch sound” when the second vehicle fell.
He told CBS Sacramento: “We look out the window and, ‘uh oh,’ it’s another.
“I don’t know. It’s ridiculous because it’s a big giant barrier, and they were going around it.”
The driver has been issued with a citation (Facebook)Recent storms have opened up a number of sinkholes across California.
In the Chatsworth neighbourhood of Los Angeles, a mum and her child needed to be helped to safety by firefighters after a road collapsed into a sinkhole.
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It came as storms raged in California that led to the deaths of at least 17 people and saw nearly 50,000 residents given evacuation orders.
Towns were flooded and more than 110,000 homes and businesses were without power because of heavy rains, lightning, hail and landslides.
Now two weeks later efforts are still being made to repair the road which is closed off while phone and internet outages have been announced as cables need to be reconnected.
Dozens of people are expected to lose connections close to the sinkhole on Iverson Road.
The Los Angeles City Council approved about $500,000 in emergency funding to speed up repairs.
"There is a community just north of the freeway containing a number of homes and a representative of the homeowner group says they have been notified both by Caltrans and by ATNT regarding the outage that is scheduled to begin," said Michael Comeaux spokesman for Caltrans LA (California Department for Transportation).