Child's play nearly turned tragic in Queens when a young boy fell down a city sewer. The boy spoke exclusively to NY1's Ruschell Boone about his horrific ordeal.
Dereon Quattlebaum was playing with his friends on 107th Avenue in Jamaica when he jumped onto a curb and landed in a city catch basin.
"I grabbed it right here, and then everybody said, 'Are you OK?' I said, 'I am not OK. My leg hurts right here,'" Dereon said.
Showing us his cuts and bruises, the 8-year-old said he began to cry when he couldn't get himself out of the four-foot-deep hole. Some of the kids ran to get his mother.
"They was coming from camp, and all the kids came running, saying that, 'Oh, he's bleeding. He's bleeding. He's bleeding,'" said Jasmine Quattlebaum, Dereon's mother.
Other children and a passerby pulled Dereon to safety. The boy was on his way to the doctor when NY1 spoke with him.
"He definitely could have been killed. He definitely could have been hurt more than he is hurt," Jasmine Quattlebaum said. "And I'm very upset about the situation."
So is Pamela Hazel. The neighborhood activist has been documenting and complaining to local leaders, including the borough president's office, about the hole and the weeds that prevented people from seeing it for more than a year.
"I warned them," Hazel said. "I warned them that somebody is going to get hurt, and they ignored my pleas."
A spokesperson for the borough president said a complaint was filed with the city a day after the boy's fall. The Department of Sanitation also trimmed the weeds that day. Officials say the cut was previously scheduled.
When NY1 reached out to the Department of Environmental Protection, which is responsible for the catch basin, they said we were the first to bring it to their attention. The deteriorated basin was fixed that evening.
"It's unfortunate that we have to do so much to get so little, and they only come when there is an emergency," Hazel said..
Dereon and his mother are happy that it's now safe for others to play here.