Family’s shock as 30ft sinkhole swallows car

A family have described their shock at realising a 30ft-deep sinkhole had opened up in the driveway and swallowed their car — but also their relief that nobody was hurt.

Liz and Phil Conran’s teenage daughter found the 15ft-wide crater at the family home in Main Road, Walter’s Ash, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire,

Liz Conran said her daughter, 19-year-old Zoe Smith, went into hysterics upon discovering her prized Volkswagen Lupo had disappeared into the ground.

Explaining what happened she said: “My daughter went to go and let her horses out because she was going off somewhere for the day and she had to drive up there, and she got herself all ready, got to the door, and saw her car wasn’t there.

“She thought that was a bit weird, of course it was still fairly dark outside, so she went round to the kitchen window and then she saw the crater and just started screaming.

“We just kind of took it from there really. We had no idea whether the car was actually in the hole or not, we couldn’t get close enough to have a look right down to the bottom, it’s about 30 feet deep.

Liz Conran, said the relief that nothing had happened to her daughter was the overwhelming emotion, while the rest was “just an annoyance”.

She said the family, including her husband Phil who works as an environmental consultant, were stunned at the size of the crater.

She said that there were no signs of the sinkhole starting to appear — no cracks in the drive or in the house, no dip in the ground — and they did not hear it as it happened.

Firemen were called to the family home at 8.32am on Sunday.