Fayetteville officer injured, driver charged after 18-wheeler falls into massive sinkhole; road reopened

A Fayetteville police officer will survive after he was pushed into a sinkhole Monday night by an 18-wheeler that slammed through a barricade.

Work was underway Tuesday to repair a massive sinkhole on Raeford Road in Fayetteville that opened on U.S. 401, near Seventy-First Middle and High Schools, after a storm system brought more than four inches of rain to Fayetteville.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation said the road reopened just after 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Kem Braden, Fayetteville's police chief, said the injured officer, D. Pressley, is recovering at home after the accident.

According to Braden, Highland Paving Company has been working in the area for about a year installing a new underground drainage system. The state Department of Transportation said the sinkhole was created after a large amount of rain fell during overnight storms, and that's when Fayetteville officers were called to the area.

"When officers were attempting to close off the road ... there was a vehicle that was driving too fast for conditions and actually struck the officers' cars as they were out there and pushed the officer into the hole," Braden said.

Video shows Pressley moments after he managed to pull himself out of the giant sinkhole.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, whose vehicle first fell into the sinkhole, also stayed on the scene. He had hit the brakes on his tractor-trailer when he saw the police barricade for where the sinkhole was, but started sliding and hit the police car.

WRAL News is working to learn the name of the driver, who was charged with failure to reduce speed and traveling too fast for conditions.

NCDOT spokesperson Andrew Barksdale said the state is pleased with the work Highland Paving is doing on the project. Barksdale said what happened Monday night was an unfortunate act of nature, like flash flooding from a hurricane.

"The water just overwhelmed this work area," said Barksdale. "We had this unusual amount of rainfall and that's what caused the sinkhole."

Raeford Road at 71st School Road and Graham Road is closed but expected to reopen later on Tuesday.

WRAL reporter Michael Grace was on the scene Monday night and helped Pressley, who was trapped in the sinkhole and working to get his way out.

Another police officer arrived and began tending to the stuck and injured officer. While waiting for paramedics to arrive, Pressley was able to sit up before he was taken away in an ambulance.

"This rain was just a freak rainstorm, a heavy rainstorm event," Barksdale said. "And everything is designed the way it should be as far as construction and it's just an act of God with this kind of rainfall."

The tractor-trailer was still partially submerged in the sinkhole, with the top sticking out above the mud, showing just how deep the sinkhole is.

There were a total of 12 flooding reports in Cumberland County overnight.