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| Arabia |
| Manhole claims another life |
| 2014-11-17 |
| [ARABNEWS] Jeddah's streets have become some of the most dangerous in the Kingdom with open manholes and sewage drains posing a serious risk to pedestrians and motorists. In a tragic incident, Abdullah Al-Zahrani, a student of Said Bin Gubair high school in Kilo 11 tripped and fell into an open drain on Sunday while out walking with his friends in the east of Jeddah. His friends tried to rescue him but when all efforts failed, they called the Civil Defense. Civil Defense officers pulled out Al-Zahrani's body. The Civil Defense did not release an official statement until late Sunday evening. The director of the Education Department, Abdullah Al-Thaqafi, as well as the director of the East Jeddah office and head of security and safety in the Education Department visited at the scene of the tragedy. Over a month ago, a father and his son died in a similar accident on Tahliya Street. The father tried to rescue his five-year-old-child who had fallen into a sewage tank. A Civil Defense officer held on to the man for some time before his grip loosened, plunging the father and son to death. The accident happened on Oct. 9. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 Wow, Mike. You were there for the whole decade's rain. In one week. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-11-17 22:17 |
| #6 Glenmore, Well, FWIW, I was a proud survivor of what was called the 'Spring Break Rotation' for Operation Southern Watch (Jan-Jun '95). Hail and torrential rains in central Saudi Arabia...for nearly a WEEK. Literally could not get up to al-Kharj from Riyadh, even if we'd had to. If Saddam had decided to invade that week, we'd have been screwed. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2014-11-17 22:11 |
| #5 Deacon blues: they are still stealing them. Also stealing storm drain covers on the side of the interstates. |
| Posted by: chris 2014-11-17 17:47 |
| #4 Solution: Open season on manhole thieves. |
| Posted by: gorb 2014-11-17 15:01 |
| #3 Back in '79 I was doing some drainage work in Columbus, Georgia. We had to wait to install the manhole covers until just a few hours before the city inspectors showed up because if we did it any sooner they would all be stolen and sold for scrap. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2014-11-17 10:41 |
| #2 Were this up to AP/MSM standards, these manholes would be called "people holes" or "non-gender specific holes." |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2014-11-17 08:51 |
| #1 Happens around here too. When it rains hard sometimes the drains back up and push the manhole covers off, and people wading through the flooded streets fall into the holes and drown. Doesn't strike me that Jeddah has quite the same excuse. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2014-11-17 07:57 |