WATCH | Durban man's car fished out of 'sewage-filled' construction hole

A 70-year-old Phoenix man was traumatised after he drove into a poorly marked construction hole in Umbilo at 5am on Friday. 

Gilbert Annamalai dropped off his wife at King Edward Hospital for treatment and was returning home when “the hole came out of nowhere”.

His son-in-law, Reuben Francis, told TimesLIVE the hole was filled with raw sewage and there was a “stench in the area”. 

“It was quite dark at the time and there were no clear early warning or signs to say there was construction ahead. The lane suddenly went straight into the hole. To make matters worse, the hole is filled with raw sewage,” he said. 

Francis said tow truck operators were battling to remove the vehicle, a VW Polo, from the hole. 

“It is quite deep and big. My father-in-law is shaken and we will take him to hospital,” he said. 

Francis said community members who arrived to assist complained that they had reported the unsafe construction site numerous times to the eThekwini municipality.

Paramedics, who did not want to be named, said they frequently responded to similar scenes where motorists had driven into construction sites that had no early warning signs.

ALS Paramedics spokesperson Garrith Jamieson said paramedics responded to the Umbilo scene at 5.30am.

“On arrival, paramedics found a vehicle crashed into an open hole filled with water where men had been doing construction work for the past few weeks. Paramedics assessed the driver and he sustained no injuries.”

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.