Earth collapses under Southwest Side woman mowing lawn
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com July 19, 2011 2:00AM
Michele Guzick is assisted by her husband, Mark, as she turns to leave the hole that she fell into. | Keith Hale~Sun-Times
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Updated: October 25, 2011 12:30AM
Michele Guzick was mowing the parkway grass in front of her Clearing home on July 9 when she felt the earth collapsing beneath her feet like quick sand.
Before she knew it, the 43-year-old oral surgical nurse had fallen into a hole up to her knees. Only the lawn mower prevented her from falling deeper into the 30-inch-deep hole on the parkway side of the curb near an apparently collapsing catch basin.
Both ankles, her right knee and left wrist are severely sprained, with torn knee and ankle ligaments suspected, pending an MRI later this week. She can’t drive. She’s been out of work for a week. She’s expected to miss at least two weeks more.
Now, Guzick is demanding to know why the shifting parkway soil in the 6800 block of West 63rd Place — which she said she reported to the city’s 311 non-emergency system two weeks before the accident — did not trigger an emergency repair.
In fact, Guzick said it was only after the accident — when her husband contacted Ald. Mike Zalewski (23rd) — that the city put construction saw horses over the hole so nobody else could fall in. The hole still hasn’t been filled.
“I am completely outraged. They city has totally failed. After calling 311 and telling them there were children at risk, they did absolutely nothing,” said Guzick, who moved in six weeks ago and has two young children, ages 6 and 7.
“It looks like the [catch basin] is collapsing on the street side and the ground is collapsing on the curb side. It looks like it’s been washing out for years, but you couldn’t tell because the grass was covering it.”
After falling, Guzick recalled letting out a blood-curdling scream.
“I was scared to death. My heart just stopped. I thought I was gonna die,” she said.
“I just remember everything collapsing around me. I felt like I was going deeper and deeper and deeper. The lawn mower was still going. I thought it was gonna come down on top of me. As it turned out, the lawn mower saved me. It was so heavy and so big, it gave me something to hold onto.”
Water Management spokesman Tom LaPorte said the pair of 311 calls that Guzick said she placed before the accident did not trigger an immediate repair because the system has no record of them.
“We heard about this on Friday. We got a report about a hole in the parkway associated with a catch basin outlet from Ald. Zalewski’s office. We investigated it that day and scheduled it for repair this week,” LaPorte said.
“We’re told that one of our customers hurt her ankle while doing lawn work. We’re very sorry to hear this and have tried to reach her by phone to express our concern.”
LaPorte noted that Chicago has 240,000 catch basins and 4,400 miles of sewer mains. A few years ago, several harsh winters left a backlog of thousands of outstanding catch basin repairs. The current backlog is 1300 catch basins and 500 outlet pipes that lead toward the sewer.
“It’s an old system. There’s also corrosion that can be caused by chemicals in the street,” LaPorte said.
Zalewski said he has little doubt that Guzick called 311 before the accident, even though the system has no record of the calls.
“Sometimes, the calls from 311 may not get to the operating departments. That’s something that definitely has to be looked at,” he said.
As for the dangerous parkway hole, the alderman said, “It’s a growing problem. The infrastructure of the city is getting old. You’re starting to see sewers and catch basins dropping in, potholes and streets needing repair. Without the ability to fix these problems quickly, that’s one of the problems we’re facing.”
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