7th Street reopens after sinkhole swallows truck in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- 7th Street in San Francisco reopened Friday afternoon after a large sinkhole nearly swallowed a flatbed truck.

The sinkhole opened up around 5:45 a.m. while the driver of the truck was inside the vehicle. The driver was shaken up, but uninjured.

"It is astonishing to see a truck that big turned over that much," one witness said.

The fire department is estimating the sinkhole is 20 feet by 10 feet in size. The cause of the sinkhole is being investigated, but it's unknown how much damage occurred. Officials say there is an 8-inch sewer main, and other unknown utility lines under the affected area.

"It is possible, which is why the San Francisco PUC is here right now is it could be that the sewer main collapsed under the truck and that could be the issue. But, again we're treating it like that until we know differently," Betsy Rhodes with the SFPUC said.

"I was amazed, and I thought something had happened to the truck. I thought the truck had done something. Turns out the street collapsed underneath the truck," witness Stanley Goldstein said.

The roadway reopened in time for the evening commute.