Missing worker found alive in Raymore after being swept away in sewer line
Posted by GSDispatch Editor in GSD Online
A contract worker was swept away through a manhole this morning in the 600 block of West Foxwood Drive. The man was carried through the 24-inch sanitary sewer line by heavy water, for nearly three-quarters of a mile, before being located alive by emergency rescue crews near the 15th green of the Creekmoor Golf Course.
The missing man was found conscious but in serious condition roughly an hour after his disappearance and was transported by LifeFlight Eagle air ambulance to St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. According to emergency responders, the worker was able to stop himself in one of the line’s junction boxes just before the lake at the golf course.
The incident began about 8:15 a.m. as the missing worker was lowered into a manhole near Mazuma Credit Union from an above tripod, and became somehow untethered from his harness and was swept away by rushing water in the sewer line. A coworker reportedly ran to the nearby South Metro fire station to report the incident.
Pumps at the Owen Good Lift Station were immediately shut off by the City to stop the line’s water feed during the search for the missing worker. The worker’s flashlight was recovered in the line roughly 25 yards from his entry point.
The KCMO Fire Department responded to a call for mutual aid in the search and rescue process, as did emergency units from several other municipalities, including Belton and Grandview. City of Raymore Public Works crewmembers assisted emergency responders in the search for the missing man by lowering a video camera in the sewer line and opening manhole covers downstream as while searching the line. Zach Frazier, a Raymore Public Works maintenance worker, was among the rescuers who located the missing man.
The injured worker was part of a Rosetta Construction crew, based in Springfield, Mo., that was contracted by the City to install new sewer pipes on the Lampkin’s Fork Interceptor Rehabilitation Project.
