NE Houston woman urges community to speak up after her son falls into uncovered storm drain
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A woman is hoping that if issues are reported, they'll be addressed faster and incidents like what happened to her son won't happen again.
Here in this northeast Houston neighborhood, going for walks is normal for Karla Torres' family. But since August, that's been tough for her 10-year-old son Allen.
"He doesn't want to walk around with his grandma," Torres said.
Torres told ABC13 that he was with his grandmother when he fell inside an uncovered storm drain while on the way back from a store near Duncan Street and East Crosstimbers Street.
"I got out of the house. I see the fire and the ambulance. I see my son lying down on the floor, basically where my feet are. He was lying down here," Torres said.
A neighbor was able to rescue him first, and he was sent to the hospital right after. Torres says he had some minor fractures.
The hole is now covered, but that hasn't put her mind at ease. Just around the corner, another storm drain wasn't. Torres also showed ABC13 the damage to a roadside drainage ditch nearby.
"If someone falls down, they can get injured. They can even die. You don't know what can happen to that person," she said.
She tried taking legal action after her son fell, but the case was dropped after the city said they weren't notified about the hole prior to his falling.
ABC13 reached out to the Houston Public Works about the issues in the neighborhood, and a department spokesperson encourages residents to call 3-1-1 and report anything that needs to be fixed.
After Eyewitness News spoke with them, a cover was also put on the other storm drain.
Torres is hoping that after hearing her son's story, her fellow community residents will start to take action.
"Basically, I just want people to talk because sometimes we don't report things like this, and that's when sometimes incidents happen. I want to do anything that's going to help the community, myself, and my son," she said.
As for the damaged drainage ditch, the city has identified it, but no plan of action has been put in place yet.
