Sinkhole Opens Up In National Corvette Museum, Swallows Eight Cars
Wed, Feb 12 2014
More cars are being moved inside the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky. to avoid falling down the same sinkhole that swallowed eight classic sports cars early this morning, Autoblog reported.
Museum officials said the hole was discovered when motion sensors activated around 5:45 a.m. The rescue mission can be viewed on the museum's live feed cameras, which weren't working after the sinkhole emerged.
A 1993 ZR-1 Spyder and a 2009 ZR1 "Blue Devil," both on loan from General Motors, were among the cars that fell into the sinkhole. The museum owned the other affected Corvettes, which included a 1963 Corvette, a 1984 PPG Pace Car and the 1 millionth Corvette ever produced.
The state of the cars at the bottom of the hole isn't known, but trial lawyer and sinkhole expert Ted Corless said the cars may be a total loss for the museum and GM.
"Most states, including Kentucky, exclude damage caused by sinkhole activity," he said. "There will be, in all likelihood, a claim made, but a lot of policies would specifically exclude these kinds of damages."
Corless has 15 years experience dealing with sinkholes. He said that typically neither the building, nor the cars themselves are protected under their insurance policies.
"I would have to say, more likely then not, they're going to have an uninsured loss measured in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."
The museum is closed Wednesday while a structural engineer assesses the damage.
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By AOL Autos Staff
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