Elderly woman injured in 3rd manhole accident this month

A 71-year-old woman sustained several injuries in another manhole-related mishap in Nonthaburi, just north of Bangkok.

At around 9pm on Tuesday, the woman fell down a manhole on Chaiyapruek Road in Nonthaburi’s Pak Kret district. The accident left the woman, identified only as Somjit, with a cut under her left eyebrow, several scrapes across her body and injured her right leg.

Rescuers from the Bua Phet Nonthaburi Foundation rushed to the scene and took her to Pak Kret 2 Hospital for treatment.
Somjit and her sister had taken a taxi to their home in Nonthaburi’s Sai Noi district, but were dropped off at this spot because the driver was not familiar with the route.

While waiting for another taxi, Somjit stepped on the footpath and found herself at the bottom of a 80x80 centimetre wide drainage hole.

Her sister shouted for help and an employee and some patrons of a nearby food shop rushed to help. They put a ladder down and a person climbed down to help her up. The shop’s employee said there were many manholes left uncovered on the footpath.
Two similar accidents have taken place in Bangkok earlier this month.

On May 3, a 57-year-old man died from falling down a manhole under the Yellow Line monorail on the road island of Lat Phrao Road. The manhole’s metal lid had been stolen and replaced by a decaying wooden hatch.

Two days later on May 5, a motorcyclist was fatally injured after falling down a 50-centimetre-deep drain on a pavement in a tunnel in Bangkok.

The motorcycle had skidded inside the underpass, causing the rider to slide several metres before dropping down the drainage hole. Once section of the drainage system had been left open after the lid was stolen.