A terrifying scene played out on Chennai's Old Mahabalipuram Road on the morning of October 8, 2026, when a section of the busy IT corridor suddenly gave way near Tidel Park, swallowing a white car whole. Video of the incident shows the vehicle's front tires sinking into the collapsing road before it tips over and lands upside down inside a crater roughly 10 feet deep. The collapse happened near an underground Metro construction site and a road median, catching the driver with almost no time to react. Remarkably, both occupants, a man and a woman, climbed out unhurt with help from bystanders and police who rushed to the scene.

Officials have pointed to the likely failure of an aging underground sewage pipeline, which they believe caused gradual soil erosion beneath the road surface until it could no longer bear the weight of passing traffic. Chennai Metro Rail Limited has not yet said whether the nearby underground construction work played any role in the collapse, though authorities are examining the connection. The stretch, a key artery through Chennai's IT corridor, has seen a string of similar cave-ins in recent months, renewing public concern over the condition of the road and the pace of ongoing repairs. Crews have since moved in to pull the car free and begin backfilling and stabilizing the crater, though traffic along the corridor remained disrupted for hours.