A Nova Scotia woman says she can’t leave her home because she doesn’t trust the ground around it.
Laurie Marsh fell through a hole in the road while she was out for a walk near her Newport Station home about a week ago.
She says she fell, blacked out, and woke up stuck in a hole underneath the road after the culvert collapsed.
When Marsh awoke, she says it looked like a car was almost on top of her.
“All I wanted to do was move, and I couldn’t move. The more I’d move, the more the gravel and asphalt and everything…it’s still frightening.”
Two culverts sit side-by-side on the road, which separates two sections of marsh. The road over one of the culverts had caved in, trapping Marsh.
“Her arms are all but underneath her, and her legs were all bent up like that,” says witness Jason Crooks. “I asked her to move her toes. She moved her right leg and right arm, but the left arm and left leg, it wasn’t moving.”
Emergency crews got her out of the hole quickly and the road was filled in.
But area residents say the Department of Transportation should never have allowed the culverts to deteriorate to the point of collapse.
“You got a school bus that travels up and down this road four times a day,” says Marsh’s husband, Ray Negus. “Somebody’s going to lose a vehicle or school bus.”
He would like to see a more permanent fix soon.
Officials with the Department of Transportation say heavy rain combined with melted snow had washed away gravel surrounding the culvert.
They say the road is safe now and crews are keeping a close eye on it.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw
