Hole swallows jogger on Niagara Falls street

A man in Niagara Falls man was trapped in the ground for about an hour early this morning — after going out for a jog.

A bizarre story for sure and one that might have been avoided. The man was trapped for some time beginning at 5:15 this morning at the corner of McLeod and Drummond.

This was the hole, right by the sewer grate. It has been filled in now but it had been like this for quite some time.

This is what we think happened. The 44-year old man was coming towards this direction or had turned toward this direction when his foot went directly through that he hadn’t seen. It was supposed to be covered. He was trapped all the way up to his hip.

The roads department said that the hole had been worked on last Friday and had been covered and secured. Crews had inspected the area as recently as 11pm last night and they speculate that someone must have moved the cover and that is what led to the incident.

Fire conducted a rescue operation which lasted about an hour because crews had to cut open a portion of the road in order to free the man.

We have not received an official report but the man was in obvious discomfort. This was confirmed by the fire chief who said he was in a lot of pain.

The manager of a nearby bar says this has been a problem for the last two months.

Mirko Madic, manager of local bar: “It was like maybe two months ago that we noticed the sinkhole. And it was just ignored or just a pylon on the side. It never got fixed until now.”

Platoon Chief Wayne Willett, Niagara Falls Fire Dept: “He was in quite a bit of pain. We’re not quite sure about the extent of his injuries. Our guys at the scene didn’t think he had any broken bones. But he was in a lot of pain and EMS did respond.”

A call into the director of municipal works to find out how long it will take to fix this hole was not returned. The police did say the man’s injuries were minor.