A stretch of Jonesboro Road was shut down Thursday morning for crews to repair a sinkhole that developed in the pavement, but not before a half-dozen cars were damaged.
“Just after 6 a.m., we had a 6-inch water line break that caused a sinkhole in the road,” said Suzanne Brown, spokeswoman for the Clayton County Water Authority.
Workers brought in a backhoe after daybreak to begin repairing the small hole, which was in the northbound lanes of Jonesboro Road north of Watts Drive in Forest Park, but that was little solace for drivers stranded on the side of the road with flat tires.
At least two of those motorists were only on Jonesboro Road because they were avoiding a truck wreck that blocked all northbound lanes of I-675 around daybreak.
“I was coming this way because I usually go 675, and there was a hole and one of my tires got busted,” said Alondra Suazo. “It’s really frustrating.”
Teri Moody shared Suazo’s frustration.
“I normally go 675, but because of that accident, I had to reroute myself to Jonesboro Road,” Moody said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s hardly any traffic out here,’ and about that time, it went ‘boom, boom,’ and my car went down.”
Moody bought the car, a Toyota Camry, last month.
“I pulled over and I had two flat tires and my rims were messed up,” she said. “I feel bad that my car is sitting on the side of the road and I need to get it towed.”
The good news for those drivers is that they won’t be on the hook for the towing and repair bills.
“We are either having the cars towed for them or they can have their cars towed and we’ll reimburse them,” Brown said. “We’ve already got our insurance company working with us to expedite all this to help with the repairs.”
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