Shock as van slips into hole
An electrician was left stunned after a 4ft-deep hole, believed to be caused by old mine workings, opened up in the road, sending his work van's front wheel into the ground.
Jason Kirkbride couldn't believe his eyes when he stepped outside the house at which he was working, in Bloxwich Road North, Willenhall, and realised that his van seemed to be parked slightly lop-sided.
On closer inspection, he discovered that one of the front wheels had gone part-way into the hole – which hadn't been there when he parked the vehicle.
Worried residents in the Short Heath area of the town said old mine workings are known to exist there but this is the first time they can remember a hole suddenly opening up in the ground.
Mr Kirkbride, aged 34, of Penn, Wolverhampton, said: "I couldn't believe it when I stepped outside the customer's house and looked at my vehicle. When I got closer, I realised part of my van had fallen down a great big hole which was something of a shock."
Police were called to the scene on Saturday afternoon and closed the road while engineers from Walsall Council assessed the damage.
Evacuated
Cyril Boys, 83, who has lived in Bloxwich Road North for 43 years, said: "The area is blighted by old mine shafts and I know mine workings have shown up on surveys when people have tried to sell houses in this street but this is the first time I'm aware of a hole opening up in the road like this."
Walsall Council says there are 20,000 estimated old mine workings dotted across the north and west of the borough of Walsall but knows the whereabouts of only half of them.
In recent years there have been a number of incidents of holes suddenly opened up because of old mineworkings collapsing.
Four families were evacuated from their homes in Bloxwich when a 40ft hole opened up in January 2001.
In 2000, a 122ft mineshaft opened near graves in Willenhall Lawn Cemetery.
A few months earlier, a car plunged into a hole in Reedswood. A seam collapse was blamed for the gaping chasm.
