A Gainesville worker was taken to the Trauma Center at Shands Hospital after he fell into a drainage basin on Southwest 75th Street at about 5 p.m.
Alachua County Fire Rescue responded to an emergency call from the man’s co-worker at 4:56 p.m., said District Chief Jeff Harpe. The man had been cleaning the sidewalk on the west side of Cricket Club II Condominium Community with a backpack leaf blower when he fell through the opening of the drainage basin, which lies between the sidewalk and street.
Lieutenant Paramedic Patrick Morris found the man sitting against the side of the about six-foot deep collection basin. To his left was to the grate that normally covers the opening.
The man told Morris he had severe lower-back pain from the fall.
“He could have just stood up and climbed back up if hadn’t been injured,” Morris said. “Any movement at all was more pain than he could bear.”
It took rescuers almost an hour to extract the man from the cramped area of the five-square-foot basin. After removing the 300-pound steel grate, paramedics used a Kendrick Extrication Device to stabilize the man’s spine while they lifted him out.
Narcotics were administered to the man on the scene, and he was transported to the Trauma Center at Shands Hospital.
Alvin Ford, a maintenance supervisor for the Alachua County Public Works, said he wasn’t sure how the man and grate were able to fall into the drainage basin. It took four of his men to put the grate back into its niche.
“It’s designed for the weight of a vehicle to roll across,” he said about the grate. “You’d have to actually pull it out.”
