AKRON, Ohio — A water main break in Akron caused a road to cave in, trapping a car.
Now, the city is working to fix the mess. But the damage is causing problems for a local daycare.
On Monday, Creative Kids Connection LLC in Akron had big plans to open its doors for the start of summer.
But unfortunately, they had to cancel them due to a sinkhole.
"I’ve never did a last-minute thing to where I closed for my parents in a way such as this, so it’s like the kids was counting on today,” said daycare owner Aletha Whitfield.
Akron police shared body camera video, which shows a police officer rescuing a woman early Monday morning when a Kia Sportage got stuck in a sinkhole on Eastland Avenue.
In an email to News 5, Akron spokesperson Stephanie Marsh said the driver was unharmed, and the road remains blocked off as the city works to clean up the mess.
"You could see the water like pouring, and they [were] like it was a sinkhole,” said daycare administrator, Janessa Gavin. “The car that was actually in the hole, they had already got it and put it over here on a tow truck and time to get on the phone and call parents from there.”
While Gavin and Whitfield are glad the driver is doing OK and the sinkhole is patched up, they admit they’re still on edge.
"Parents trust us with their kids, and with us transporting them and things like this happening, it’s a little scary,” said Whitfield.
Whitfield believes she should be able to reopen her daycare on Tuesday.
But the impact of the sinkhole left some damage on and near her property, so she said they won’t be able to move their bus out of the parking lot for field trips until the road is fixed.
"It doesn’t look safe. It’s not safe,” said Whitfield. “Go ahead and just make it safe.”
Marsh said the city is working on a repair to the water line first, and once that is complete, they will work to repair the roadway.
"Our parents come down here every day, I come down here every day, and I have a 16-year-old, and he drives every day down here, so it probably needs to be repaired all the way and not patched,” said Gavin.
