a 20-foot stretch of asphalt surface and trapping a van.

The break, in front of the small parking lot at Red Hole in Paget, occurred shortly before 1 p.m.. Repairs lasted until 6:30 p.m., causing huge rush hour delays.

Southampton Princess Hotel security guard Mr. Ambrose Saltus, of Warwick, was driving a hotel van on Harbour Road just after the rupture. He said he tried to drive through what seemed to be a shallow puddle.

"When I get in the midst of the water, the doggone steering wheel was jerked out of my hand and the van started sinking. Another guy passing by yelled: Get out! Hurry! So I got out the door. The truck went down as far as the chassis.'' Mr. George Gardner, a heavy equipment operator for Island Construction, was called soon after to dig out the 10-inch black PVC plastic pipe, which he said was at least 20 years old.

He said he works on most Watlington Water pipe breaks but they are seldom more than small cracks in the road with water seeping through.

This one "just blew right up like a bomb,'' he said. Asphalt was cracked the entire length of the 20-foot split even though the pipe was at least five feet under the surface.