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Two college basketball players sprang into action after two vehicles were submerged Tuesday when a sudden sinkhole opened beneath them in Nebraska.
Sitting at a stoplight, a red SUV and a gray pickup truck waited to leave until both instantly fell over as the road collapsed.
It is unclear what exactly led to the road collapse. (UN Public Security/TMX)
The driver of the pickup truck almost immediately opened his door, but the SUV driver’s whereabouts were unknown.
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Seeing the danger, a purple car at a four-way stop stopped on the nearby sidewalk to help get the driver out of the SUV safely. Esra Kurban and Olivia Borsutzki, members of the University of Nebraska at Omaha women’s basketball team, got out of the purple car.
“I thought it was an accident, and then I saw a man next to the car and I was like, ‘Oh, the cars are actually in the ground,'” Borsutzki told PK Press Club Digital.
(Left) University of Nebraska at Omaha women’s basketball player Esra Kurban poses for a photo. (Right) University of Nebraska at Omaha women’s basketball player Olivia Borsutzki poses for a photo. (Courtesy of Omaha Athletics)
For both players, there was no doubt.
“I stopped and said to myself, ‘We have to help,’” Borsutzki added.
“No one was helping. People had their cell phones out, they were walking past, they didn’t do anything. I was like, ‘Esra, we have to do something. I don’t know what we’re doing, but we have to do something.'”
Borsutzki said the person in the SUV was “panicked,” but she grabbed him by the belt to pull him out of the sinkhole.
Dust was visible as vehicles fell onto the sidewalk. (UN Public Security/TMX)
Kurban added: “I didn’t even know there was a road that could be taken. I was shocked to see it. But luckily everything was fine after that.”
Neither driver was injured, police said.
“We are grateful to them for taking action and quickly providing assistance,” Officer Sarah Martier, an Omaha police spokeswoman, said in a statement to bystanders.
The next day, the Lady Mavericks became the only men’s or women’s NBA, WNBA or Division I team in the last 15 years to have a player with at least 40 points, another with at least 30 and another with 20 or more rebounds in the same game in their 85-74 victory over Oral Roberts.
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