PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – For months, motorists have been captured on home security video driving through barricades and across a covered crater in the middle of the street. It happened at J and Tioga streets in the city’s Harrowgate area.
“Oh a disaster, they just run on the sidewalks and run through the forest, it’s ridiculous,” said Miguel Rivera, who lives near the crater.
“They come flying down the street and at the last moment they see that there is a hole there,” said Rocco Mirra.
Neighbors tell CBS News Philadelphia they saw several cars stuck between the wooden planks covering the crater after motorists ignored traffic signs and drove around the concrete barriers.
Cameras captured a driver driving onto the sidewalk around the closure on Saturday evening.
Mirra said he helped a driver who got stuck two days ago.
“I had to take a piece of a board and put it under her tire and have her back away slowly to get it out,” Mirra said.
Another video showed a driver driving through caution tape, knocking over a barricade and mounting the sidewalk to bypass the closed intersection. The same driver then crashed into a tree before eventually driving away.
“It’s been like this for the last three, three and a half months, and there’s nothing going on,” Rivera said.
According to Rivera, the hole in the road occurred in March after a water main broke.
Now, neighbors say they are becoming increasingly frustrated as they have been waiting months for the road to be repaired and reopened.
“Someone’s going to get seriously hurt in there,” Mirra said.
“There are young children and children who are curious and playing and someone could fall and get hurt. Just come out and please fix it,” said Theresa Tunney, who lives near the closed intersection.
CBS News Philadelphia brought these concerns to the city and called and emailed the Water Department asking when the road would be repaired, but so far I have heard nothing.
“I want this to be fixed and the street to be open so traffic starts moving again because it’s ridiculous here,” Rivera said.
Ryan Hughes
