A teenage girl found herself nearly up to her shoulders in sewer water Sunday night.
Around 11:30 p.m., Christine Wright, 18, left a non-alcoholic teen party at the Pearl Lounge “Juice Bar” in New Haven.
Wright was getting into a family member's minivan across the street from the lounge when she stepped into an open sewer. She fell down several feet and couldn’t get out.
The owner of the club, Joyce Bellamy, noticed commotion across the street and then saw only Wright’s fingers holding on from below the sewer.
“When I looked down in it, there was a girl hanging on and she was submerged in the sewer drain,” Bellamy said.
Bellamy and her son grabbed hold of Wright’s arm and with the help of another man pulled her to safety.
“I just held her once we got her out,” said Bellamy. “I held her for a couple of minutes and told her everything would be alright.”
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Wright was taken by ambulance to the hospital but Bellamy says she doesn’t think Wright was seriously injured.
The New Haven Department of City Works told NBC Connecticut that the sewer should have been covered.
“Our goal is to respond as quickly as possible through inspection or a citizen complaint so it’s fixed as soon as possible,” said City Works Deputy Director Howard Weissberg.
