Post by murphee on Jan 2, 2006 2:48:33 GMT -5
Death Prompts Manhole Cover Theft Outcry
By DAN MOLINSKI, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 1, 2006 1:38 PM ET
BOGOTA, Colombia - For years, people in Colombia's capital stood by as thieves hauled off manhole covers to sell as scrap. Drivers simply tried to swerve around the gaping holes where the 110-pound, cast-iron lids used to be.
Even after a record 10,000 were stolen in 2005, Bogotanos mainly just laughed about the missing covers, which they viewed as a minor irritation compared with the terrorism and other violence associated with drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas in this South American nation.
But the apathy was swept away Christmas Day. That's when a 6-year-old boy playing near grandmother's house fell into a coverless manhole. He banged his head on the iron rim as he fell in and then drowned in the sewage.
The story of little Jordan Paez has dominated newspapers and airwaves for a week, leading officials in this city of 6 million people to launch an emergency campaign to replace covers and try to cut down on thefts.
Hundreds of people have written to media outlets or phoned the city to demand a tough crackdown, while Mayor Luis Eduardo Garzon has scolded citizens for their long indifference to the problem.
Drivers are suddenly eager to relate stories about car wheels getting jammed in gaping manholes, where they typically remain until five or so good Samaritans give a heave-ho to free a vehicle.
"On Dec. 26 I was the victim of an open manhole on 31st Street," resident Miguel Parada wrote in a letter to the editor of Colombia's leading newspaper, El Tiempo. "As the insurance company took photos of my car, three more cars fell in."
Adriana Ayala, a reporter for Colombia's main television station, RCN, has taken to spray-painting a bright orange circle around uncapped manholes as the camera rolls. She does it partly to warn drivers, and partly to tell the city: "Fix it!" she said.
In a day, Ayala marked 30 holes, and city workers tailing her re-covered 25 of them, she said proudly.
The dead boy's grandmother, Amparo Martinez, said Jordan was chasing after his new Christmas present, a remote-controlled race car, when he fell into the manhole. She hopes his death will have some meaning.
"Maybe it was a little window that God decided to open so people would take note of the injustice ... and force change," she said.
The campaign has certainly jolted police into action. Authorities confiscated just 170 manhole covers from junkyards during the year leading up to Jordan's death.
But in the three days after Christmas, police recovered 103, Metropolitan Police spokesman Jose Gregorio Perez said.
Thieves make $5 to $10 for each cover, which is a lot in Colombia, where 60 percent of the population is poor and the unemployment rate runs in double digits. Perez said such thefts are common throughout Latin America.
While police try to reduce theft, the city-owned Bogota Water and Sewer Co. has been looking for ways to discourage thieves, but so far has had little success.
Juan Carlos Suarez, one of the company's supervisors for replacing stolen covers, said one test involved replacing 110-pound covers with ones made of a mix of concrete and just 40 pounds of iron, in hopes thieves would not waste their time for just a third of the metal.
"They just busted up the cement, and then had a cover that was lighter and easier to steal," Suarez said.
He said they also tried a cover made of high-density plastic polyethylene. Thieves were not interested in them, but they pop out if cars drive over them at the wrong angle, he said.
In a more desperate move, the city has welded some of the 200,000-plus tops shut. But workers need to crawl in and out of manholes frequently, making it too costly to have welders running around town to open and reseal covers.
Despite the challenges, Suarez is optimistic that the campaign spurred by Jordan's death will have an impact.
"It's pitiful that it took the death of this little boy for people to decide they want the problem fixed, but it seems to always take a tragedy to wake people up," he said.
By DAN MOLINSKI, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 1, 2006 1:38 PM ET
BOGOTA, Colombia - For years, people in Colombia's capital stood by as thieves hauled off manhole covers to sell as scrap. Drivers simply tried to swerve around the gaping holes where the 110-pound, cast-iron lids used to be.
Even after a record 10,000 were stolen in 2005, Bogotanos mainly just laughed about the missing covers, which they viewed as a minor irritation compared with the terrorism and other violence associated with drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas in this South American nation.
But the apathy was swept away Christmas Day. That's when a 6-year-old boy playing near grandmother's house fell into a coverless manhole. He banged his head on the iron rim as he fell in and then drowned in the sewage.
The story of little Jordan Paez has dominated newspapers and airwaves for a week, leading officials in this city of 6 million people to launch an emergency campaign to replace covers and try to cut down on thefts.
Hundreds of people have written to media outlets or phoned the city to demand a tough crackdown, while Mayor Luis Eduardo Garzon has scolded citizens for their long indifference to the problem.
Drivers are suddenly eager to relate stories about car wheels getting jammed in gaping manholes, where they typically remain until five or so good Samaritans give a heave-ho to free a vehicle.
"On Dec. 26 I was the victim of an open manhole on 31st Street," resident Miguel Parada wrote in a letter to the editor of Colombia's leading newspaper, El Tiempo. "As the insurance company took photos of my car, three more cars fell in."
Adriana Ayala, a reporter for Colombia's main television station, RCN, has taken to spray-painting a bright orange circle around uncapped manholes as the camera rolls. She does it partly to warn drivers, and partly to tell the city: "Fix it!" she said.
In a day, Ayala marked 30 holes, and city workers tailing her re-covered 25 of them, she said proudly.
The dead boy's grandmother, Amparo Martinez, said Jordan was chasing after his new Christmas present, a remote-controlled race car, when he fell into the manhole. She hopes his death will have some meaning.
"Maybe it was a little window that God decided to open so people would take note of the injustice ... and force change," she said.
The campaign has certainly jolted police into action. Authorities confiscated just 170 manhole covers from junkyards during the year leading up to Jordan's death.
But in the three days after Christmas, police recovered 103, Metropolitan Police spokesman Jose Gregorio Perez said.
Thieves make $5 to $10 for each cover, which is a lot in Colombia, where 60 percent of the population is poor and the unemployment rate runs in double digits. Perez said such thefts are common throughout Latin America.
While police try to reduce theft, the city-owned Bogota Water and Sewer Co. has been looking for ways to discourage thieves, but so far has had little success.
Juan Carlos Suarez, one of the company's supervisors for replacing stolen covers, said one test involved replacing 110-pound covers with ones made of a mix of concrete and just 40 pounds of iron, in hopes thieves would not waste their time for just a third of the metal.
"They just busted up the cement, and then had a cover that was lighter and easier to steal," Suarez said.
He said they also tried a cover made of high-density plastic polyethylene. Thieves were not interested in them, but they pop out if cars drive over them at the wrong angle, he said.
In a more desperate move, the city has welded some of the 200,000-plus tops shut. But workers need to crawl in and out of manholes frequently, making it too costly to have welders running around town to open and reseal covers.
Despite the challenges, Suarez is optimistic that the campaign spurred by Jordan's death will have an impact.
"It's pitiful that it took the death of this little boy for people to decide they want the problem fixed, but it seems to always take a tragedy to wake people up," he said.
