A golfer has survived a 5.4m fall inside a sinkhole on an
Illinois course, two weeks after another sinkhole swallowed a
man in Florida.
The earth gave way on the 14th hole on the Waterloo course
while Mark Mihal (43) was investigating an unusual depression
on on the fairway, BBC reports.
Friends used a rope to bring the mortgage broker to safety,
and he got away with only a sore shoulder.
Mihal said he felt lucky to survive the "absolutely crazy"
accident.
"It didn't look unstable,'' he said of the slump in the
ground, which exposed a 3m-wide sinkhole once he stood on it.
"And then I was gone.
"I was just freefalling. It felt like forever, but it was
just a second or two, and I didn't know what I was going to
hit. And all I saw was darkness.''
Such holes are common in south-western Illinois, where old
underground mines frequently cause the earth to cave in.
Florida man Jeffrey Bush (36) is presumed dead after a
sinkhole swallowed his bedroom near Tampa this month.
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