Driver dies after gopher tunnels, irrigation water cut sinkhole in road
BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) - If you've ever driven a country road, take pause: New photos released by the Canyon County Sheriff's Office in Idaho show a sinkhole that killed a woman in mid-July.
Officials at the time said that 32-year-old Sonia Lopez was killed when her car crashed into the 15-foot-wide and 40-foot-long sinkhole on Butte Road near Melba on July 14 at about 4 a.m.
Nampa Highway District Director Casey Bequeath says irrigation water from a nearby field running through gopher tunnels likely weakened the ground beneath the street.
Bequeath says it is difficult to detect such problems ahead of time and that transportation officials had no idea the road was going to collapse.
The crash was not made public until days after it occurred, and the sinkhole had been repaired.
Officials at the time said that 32-year-old Sonia Lopez was killed when her car crashed into the 15-foot-wide and 40-foot-long sinkhole on Butte Road near Melba on July 14 at about 4 a.m.
Nampa Highway District Director Casey Bequeath says irrigation water from a nearby field running through gopher tunnels likely weakened the ground beneath the street.
Bequeath says it is difficult to detect such problems ahead of time and that transportation officials had no idea the road was going to collapse.
The crash was not made public until days after it occurred, and the sinkhole had been repaired.
Unless it gets daylight a lot earlier in Idaho. It would have been dark and very hard to see a black hole in the road. It is very sad that neglecting to wear a seat belt ended up costing her, her life. I have seen cars damaged worse than this in a Wal-mart parking lot collision.
No to much damage to car, probably no seatbelt used.
The crash was not made public until days after it occurred, and the sinkhole had been repaired.
Well they covered their axx,s
If she had been wearing a seat belt, she wouldn't have even gotten hurt.
Good riddance!
We need more "Greasy,grimy, gopher guts"
Gophers kill! We need to regulate gophers! Gopher should be banned. How many must die before we do something to stop the carnage?
Condolences to the family.
GOPHERS?! In *that* area of Idaho? I'd be much more inclined to believe in large marmots digging very large tunnels and dens under the road than I would gophers.
 @Gravity Works! They are little things called "desert rats"by the locals. Farmers fight them constantly.They did the dirt out and then the water goes in. Over time it could cause a very large area to be damaged.
She wasn't wearing a seatbelt in the crash. She would have survived had she been wearing her seatbelt. The windshield it starred indicating that her head hit it and more than likely broke her neck or cased a massive brain bleed.
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The damage to the vehicle was minimal and there was no passenger compartment intrusion.
 @RalphCramden That was my first thought and I was going to post the same remarks, but you already have:-)
 @DJK From the looks of it there were no skid marks either which means she wasn't paying attention. This sink hole is large enough that she should have seen it from at least 50 feet away (computing the distance of her head above the road, the length of sink hole and a flat road) and hit her brakes slowing her down considerable before going in.
@RalphCramden;Â Word
This is the reason I take out all the sage rats and gophers I can. They can cause massive holes that collapse when machinery like swathers drive over them. There are a fair amount of injuries to operators of farm equipment when they fall into these holes. OSHA requires seatbelts in most farm equipment to prevent these injuries. Several of my nieces and nephews have had experience falling into these holes.
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Larger live stock and elk and deer also fall into these holes and break legs which is a death sentence for them.Â
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A sad ending for an innocent driver.
Why hadn't the county posted barricades when the sinkhole became evident. Don't they have road inspectors?
 @Chitransplant This sink hole happened and no one knew about it till she landed in it. If they did know about it I guarantee that they would have fixed it that day. These are high risk failures and they don't schedule these later in the month. They are working on these within hours of discovery.
This is one of the craziest things I've heard in a long time! Insane in the membrane!
Dang, talk about having a bad day. Dang Gophers!!
That's it! Get Bill Murray out there to take care of those Gophers!!!
@Owt_Raged I want you to kill every gopher on the course! Carl Spackler: Check me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key... Sandy: Gophers, ya great git! The gophers! The little brown furry rodents! Carl Spackler: We can do that; we don't even have to have a reason.
 @Billy Batts You know I read that using their voices from the movie! LOL