Summer Ends Early After Sewage Truck Crashes Into Backyard Pool in Pennsylvania
Might as well just go back to school now.
T.S. Eliot once wrote that April is the cruelest month, but we're guessing that one Pennsylvania family will cast their vote for August after a sewage tanker truck crashed through their backyard and emptied its contents into their lovely in-ground swimming pool this week. Sorry, kids: summer's over.
WGAL News reports this unintentional metaphor for the back-to-school season was created on Thursday afternoon when the driver of the septic truck lost control and left the road on a sharp turn in Conestoga, a small township the southern part of the state. After smashing through the family's fence, the truck rolled down a small embankment and plunged directly into their pool, landing upside down and unleashing the contents of its nearly full tank on impact.
Fortunately, no one was in the pool at the time and the driver managed to escape without injury. The same cannot be said for the pool, which...just look at it. What was once a sparkling blue oasis—see the Google Street View from happier times below—is now a noxious sludge pit full of diesel fuel, engine oil, and a whole lot of excrement. When asked to describe the smell by the Associated Press, the local fire chief said to "use your imagination."
According to WGAL, the homeowner works the third shift and was inside the house sleeping (dreaming about his beautiful pool, perhaps?) when the sounds of the crash woke him up, but he brushed it off as thunder and went back to bed. It wasn't until he woke up later that he realized just what happened. Officials had to call in a Hazmat team to drain the pool before using a crane to lift the tanker from its toxic grave, and it's clear that entire yard is basically ruined.
It's currently in the mid-80s and humid in Conestoga, perfect weather for a swim, but summer seems to have come to an end at the corner of Stehman and Slackwater Roads. The unlucky homeowner also told WGAL that he usually hosts a large Labor Day party every year, and that he's now trying to figure out a new plan.
