Jul 21, 2009 7:10 pm US/Eastern
Child Released From Hospital After NYC Grate Fall
Reporting
Lou Young
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
A 10-year-old boy was walking with his dad on the sidewalk Tuesday when he plunged several feet through a grate into a pit filled with broken glass.
"I heard the father holler and jump down in there. They tried to get him out and everything. I went over, and we were going to get him out, so he said leave him down there because he might be injured. So we left him down there till the paramedics come," a witness said.
It was a sudden sidewalk grate failure at 143 Morningside Ave and 125th Street. The Fire Department managed to pull Abu Bake Meite out on a stretcher and take him to a waiting ambulance as the city inspectors descended on the building's owners to find out why the grating gave way.
It apparently leads to the basement and is privately maintained.
The boy's father outside the hospital said he's simply grateful his son's injuries aren't worse.
"If he's OK I'll be very grateful, because he's my first child," said Zomara Meite. "He still has pain."
Abu Bake's parents are immigrants from the Ivory Coast. He was born here though. His father was sporting cuts and scratches because he jumped into the pit to save his son.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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