Trash truck falls into sinkhole in north St. Louis
Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 AutoIt was a terrifying start to the shift for one St. Louis City Refuse worker Tuesday morning. One second, he was picking up trash on the city’s north side. The next, he was in a sinkhole. Around 6:45 a.m., an alley off Blair Avenue near Newhouse Avenue collapsed under the wheels of a brand-new trash truck. “I get cave-ins almost all the time,” Third Ward Alderman Freeman Bosley, Sr. turned to look at the truck, sitting in a hole surrounded by broken concrete slabs. “Not quite this bad. This is one of the worst ones I’ve seen.” Bosley was not shocked, even after learning the driver escaped unhurt. “I’m glad he’s safe. But these old alleys up and down here, this stuff is well over a hundred years old,” he explained. “And, anything over a hundred years old deteriorates.” Bosley also explained the sinkhole was just another symptom of the city’s budget problems. “All the aldermen get is money from a 3/8-cent sales tax. And, by golly, when you split that 28 ways,” the city has 28 wards. “You can only do one or two alleys.” Residents were not surprised, either.
