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A pair of college basketball players jumped into action after two vehicles were engulfed Tuesday when a sudden sinkhole opened up beneath them in Nebraska.
At a red light, a red SUV and a gray pickup truck waited to drive until both fell instantly as the road collapsed.
It is unclear what caused the road to collapse. (UN Public Safety/TMX)
The driver of the pickup truck opened his door almost immediately, but the status of the driver of the SUV was not known.
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When a purple car at the four-way stop saw the danger, it pulled onto the nearby sidewalk to help get the driver of the SUV out safely. Out of the purple car came Esra Kurban and Olivia Borsutzki, members of the University of Nebraska Omaha women’s basketball team.
“I thought it was an accident, and then I saw a man next to the car and thought, ‘Oh, the cars are actually in the ground,'” Borsutzki told Pakinomist Digital.
(Left) University of Nebraska Omaha women’s basketball player Esra Kurban poses for a photo. (Right) University of Nebraska Omaha women’s basketball player Olivia Borsutzki poses for a photo. (Courtesy of Omaha Athletics)
For both players, there was no second guessing.
“I pulled over and thought, ‘We have to help,'” Borsutzki added.
“Nobody was helping. People had their cellphones out, driving by, they weren’t doing anything. I thought, ‘Ezra, we’ve got to do something. I don’t know what we’re doing, but we’ve got to do something’.”
Borsutzki said the person in the SUV “panicked,” but she grabbed him by his belt to get him out of the sinkhole.
Dust could be seen as the vehicles fell to the pavement. (UN Public Safety/TMX)
Kurban added: “I didn’t even know a road could go down. I was shocked to see it. But luckily everything turned out to be fine after that.”
None of the drivers were injured, police said.
“We are grateful to them for stepping in and quickly rendering aid,” Officer Sarah Martier, an Omaha police spokeswoman, said in a statement from the bystanders.
The next day, the Lady Mavericks became the only NBA, WNBA or Division I men’s or women’s team in the last 15 years to have one player with at least 40 points, another with at least 30 and another with 20 or more rebounds in the same game in their 85–74 win over Oral Roberts.
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