A ute surviving a Dunedin road collapse unscathed might just be the best accidental advertisement South Korean brand SsangYong could have asked for. Yesterday, a 60-year-old man was heading to work along Bay View Rd at 4.30am when the road suddenly gave out and his ute’s front wheels became jammed beneath the tarmac. The back of his ute, a SsangYong Musso 2018, was raised off the road and a burst water pipe began spraying water in every direction. A man on his commute to work was delayed after a hole opened up under his ute and jammed it into the ground in Bay View Rd, South Dunedin, yesterday morning. PHOTOS: STEPHEN JAQUIERY His wife said after his ute was towed out it was driven to a mechanic who found that except for a few stones that had lodged underneath it, there was not a scratch on it. ‘‘It’s perfectly fine ... it’s driveable and looking perfect.’’ Her husband did not know there was a sinkhole there — he could see puddles on the road because it was raining and was slowing down for the roundabout. ‘‘That’s when it went down.’’ Though he got a fright, he was uninjured. She said they both wanted to thank emergency services and the couple who stopped to help her husband during the incident. Emergency services free the ute. A Dunedin City Council spokesman said water was shut off to about 30 properties for about three hours from 5.30am. None of the nearby properties were affected by flooding from the burst main, but the water scoured out a 2m by 2m hole. The road surface was reinstated by late afternoon. The Korean brand changed its name to KGM about two years ago. laine.priestley@odt.co.nz
