AN 18-month-old toddler has miraculously survived plunging 10ft through a faulty manhole cover in Worcester.

Arthur Hayward, aged 36, was at a family barbecue in Troutbeck Drive, Warndon, on Saturday night with his fiancée Leanne Webb when his son disappeared down the hole.

The toddler was playing on top of the two manholes, which are raised up above the ground on a grass verge, but as he stepped from one cover to the other the second gave way beneath him and he plunged down the hole, hitting his head on the way down.

Fortunately the infant escaped serious injury but was left bruised and grazed and had to be kept under observation at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

His distraught father, who spent all night at his bedside with his fiancée, said A-j was lucky to be alive.

“My son could have died,” said the lorry driver. “If that cast-iron cover had followed him down the hole it would have killed him. It fell to the side fortunately.

“I’ve been up all night at the hospital. The doctors can’t believe he went down the manhole.

“He was on one manhole cover then he stepped on to the other one and the cover lid just went.

“As he stepped on it he just disappeared. He just went straight through.

“I had to climb all the way down there and climb back up to the ladder with him on my arm. He hit his head on the steps as he went down. I’m still in shock.

“Everytime I close my eyes I can see him falling.”

The couple, who live in Birmingham, had come to Worcester for the weekend to celebrate the birthday of Mr Hayward’s cousin, Paul Fletcher.

His fiancée, 28, said she was still in shock.

“We were just talking here, we were watching him he was singing and walking around there humming to himself,” she said. “He trod on the first one then he walked across on that one and he just disappeared. He was gone.

“I haven’t slept all night, we’re just traumatised.”

Neighbour Tracy Earl, 50, of Eskdale Close, said the manhole cover had be loose for some time.

“It’s either broken or completely off,” she said. “It’s always broken. Something should be done about it.”

Jon Fraser, Worcestershire County Council’s highways manager, said: “As soon as we were made aware of the incident we promptly attended the location to make the area safe by fitting a utility plate to cover the manhole and put barriers around the area.

“It’s a Severn Trent Water manhole cover and this will be referred to them.”

A spokesman for Severn Trent Water said: “We are aware of an incident that took place at Troutbeck Drive that was reported to us this morning [Monday].


“We take safety very seriously and we would like to apologise to those affected. We sent an inspector out to investigate this morning and the site has now been made safe.”