Screenshot : Boston 25 News ( Facebook

A Chevrolet S10 pickup drove into a sinkhole in Worcester, Massachusetts on Tuesday, and the back of its cab appears to have just floated right off the frame. It’s bizarre.


Here’s the clip of the truck’s peculiar structural failure:

Just gander at how the cab looks to just float and break free from its rearmost body mounts, tilting forward away from the bed. Why this happened, I can’t say with certainty. My first thought is that, since this happened in Massachusetts, perhaps the mounts had been compromised by rust, and the cab’s buoyancy working against the frame’s tendency to sink was too much for them to handle?


But then I look at that right rear bedside (bedsides are generally among the first parts of an S10 to rust out) and it looks clean, so maybe it wasn’t just corrosion?

Regardless, the sinkhole pretty much split the truck’s cab from its bed, as you can see from the aftermath shot at the end of this WBZ News clip:

The good news is that it looks like the driver was rescued by police, and sustained no major injuries resulting from the main break, which was caused by a broken 24-inch water main that the City of Worcester Department of Public Works and Parks says was installed back in 1955.



Image Credit: City of Worcester Department of Public Works and Parks


Boston 25 News says 50,000 residents were advised to limit water use, and the City of Worcester Department of Public Works wrote on its Facebook page Tuesday that customers “may experience no water, rusty or cloudy water.”

As of Wednesday evening, the organization wrote that repairs were still underway, but that normal system pressure had been achieved, that crews flushed “strategic hydrants” to purge air and rust, that chlorine content had been increased at the treatment plant as a precaution, and that most residents had reported improved water quality.


So things in Worcester are looking up, but I’m more curious about this S10. What exactly caused the cab mounts to fail? Did the motor hydrolock when its nose dipped below the water level? Is there any hope to put this lovable little truck back on the road?

Based on how deep it sank, I’ll guess the answer is “no” to that last question. Which is sad. I’m a fan of S10s.