City traffic can get most people down - although rarely as far as 20 feet below street level.
But this was the fate of a hapless driver in the US city of Milwaukee, who drove straight into a huge sinkhole that opened up as a result of torrential rain.
Professional poker player Lance Treankler was approaching traffic lights on Thursday evening, but had failed to notice a vast pit that had opened up at the intersection.
And as if falling into the chasm wasn't a bad enough hand to be dealt, Treankler's Cadillac Escalade SUV ended up getting clobbered by a traffic light that fell onto its roof.
Speaking afterwards, he said that the road had just gone out from under him.
"Everything just collapsed," Treankler told city news site WTMJ.
"When I landed my head snapped back and I went unconscious for a few seconds."
Fortunately, Treankler had a helping hand from passer-by Mark Pawlik, who reached into the pit to offer the poker player something to hold'em onto.
"I grabbed your hand," he explained when the two were reunited. "You looked at me like you weren't even in yourself and just said 'get me out of here!'"
Treankler escaped with just a sore back and neck and some cuts and bruises, but his car wasn't so lucky. It took workers 24 hours to hoik it out of the pit, which itself could take up to six weeks to fix.
