Texas officer dies after car plummets into sinkhole

A police officer in San Antonio, Texas, has died after her car fell into a sinkhole Sunday night.

Dora Linda Nishihara, a Bexar County Sheriff Deputy, was off-duty at the time of the fatal crash, according to a post on the Bexar County Sheriff's Office Twitter page. Two other people were injured. Nishihara, who had worked as a reserve deputy for seven years, had transitioned into a part-time deputy role at the Bexar County Courthouse, Bexar Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said in a statement.

"My heart and prayers go out to the family involved in this tragedy," San Antonio Mayor Ivy R. Taylor said in a statement. Shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday night, Nishihara's car was headed down Quintana Road when it crashed into a 12-foot-deep sinkhole, CNN affiliate WOAI reported. Rushing water quickly poured into the car from a sewer main. Soon, the vehicle submerged.

By Monday morning, emergency responders shifted from a rescue to a recovery mission, during which emergency workers attempted to pull the vehicles out of the sinkhole. "We suffered a few collapses that widened the sinkhole, and our technical rescue team firefighters were exposed to raw sewage at a fast, flowing rate, as well as very cold water," Chief Charles Hood of the San Antonio Fire Department told WOAI. Read more