Mecosta County Washout: Woman Narrowly Escapes As Road Collapses

A road crumbled and vanished in the span of just minutes…

A woman drove over it just moments before it happened.

It’s a story we brought you first last Friday…

A portion of 19 Mile Road in Mecosta County washed out, quickly expanding from a crack into a large sinkhole.

9&10’s Cody Boyer met the last person to drive over the road before it washed out.

He tells us what happened from there.

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“It was within minutes,” remembers Kamala Robinson. “The concrete, the pavement was broke loose."

Day in, day out, Kamala drives down 19 Mile Road to see her parents.

“I visit them every day,” Robinson says. “Come down the same road. It’s a dip. You don’t think nothing of it."

Until Friday…

There were no orange "Road Blocked" signs on her way back just yet.

“There was a gentleman kind of waving and I thought, you know, why?” Robinson says. “I just went through there."

Then, a gaping hole…

“When I hit it, the truck went airborne,” Robinson says. “The lady that I had spoken to afterward that had seen it couldn’t believe that I didn’t…it was the grace of God that I wasn’t in the ditch."

“When she called me, it just has a hole maybe 6, 8 feet by 6, 8 feet,” says Gene Brigner, Kamala’s father.

Gene found her in a truck that wouldn’t start…and the road collapsing behind her.

“Within minutes after I got here, you could see the road cracking, just developing and sand falling in,” Brigner says.

The damage to Kamala’s truck, if you look from the outside, you won’t see much but if you look underneath, that’s a different story."

“There was some kind of oil and everything coming out of underneath,” Robinson says. “I was so thankful because right after I come through, there was a young mom."

A bad situation that nearly involved others…but didn’t.

“She’s very fortunate,” Brigner says. “She didn’t call it luck. She called it the Good Lord watching after her, you know?"

“There’s a lot of what-ifs, you know?” Robinson says. “What if I would have brought my car? He made it so that didn’t start. What if I was a little bit later and the young mom went through with the baby that was in the backseat? He had it all taken care of. God gave me another chance. I don’t know how I deserve it but He did."

Crews are expected to start work on repairing the road tomorrow.