INDIANAPOLIS, IN – A Wishard Hospital ambulance dropped nose first into a sinkhole caused by a water main break on the eastside this morning.
The ambulance ignored barricades where a 12-inch water main had burst at 38th and Rural streets, said Veolia Water spokesman Paul Whitmore. The break had forced authorities to close Rural between 38th and 39th streets.
The ambulance was not on an emergency run, but the driver was apparently trying to take a shortcut about 7:30 a.m., Whitmore said.
Whitmore said the street was covered in about two feet of water and the ambulance dropped, front first, into a collapsed piece of road.
He said neither of the two occupants of the ambulance was injured. The ambulance was towed from the sinkhole, he said.
Todd Harper, a spokesman at Wishard, said officials at the hospital were investigating the accident but he could not provide specifics on where the ambulance was going or why it was within the barricaded area.
Water officials hoped to have the main repaired and the street re-opened this afternoon, Whitmore said.
