Crime & Safety

Updated: Rescuers Locate Body of Man Who Was Sucked into Sewer System in Lawrence Township

The victim was sucked down a manhole and into a sewer pipe while trying to clear flood water on a property he owns in the 200 block of Bakers Basin Road in Lawrence Township.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:30 p.m. Aug. 30.

After nearly eight hours of searching through about two miles of underground sewer pipe, rescue personnel located the body of the man who was sucked down a manhole while he and others were trying to clear flood water from the rear of a landscaping supply company in the 200 block of Bakers Basin Road in Lawrence Township on Tuesday (Aug. 30).

At 10:10 p.m. Lawrence Township Police Chief Daniel Posluszny confirmed that rescuers who went into the sewer system – after the flow of water through it had been stopped – had located the man’s body at the Ewing-Lawrence Sewerage Authority (ELSA) sewerage plant on Whitehead Road.

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“It’s an absolute tragedy,” Posluszny said. Lawrenceville Patch is honoring the police chief’s request to withhold the name of the victim Tuesday night so that proper notifications can be made to the man’s family first.

Posluszny said township police and emergency personnel from throughout Mercer County made a valiant rescue effort but the force of “millions of gallons” of water flowing through the pipe was too much to overcome in time to save the man.

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The tragedy began about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday when the man – who police confirmed is the owner of the property on which the landscaping supply company operates – was working to clear flood water from the rear of property, which sits adjacent to the Delaware & Raritan Canal.      

Posluszny said the man lifted the cover of a manhole leading in a sewer pipe, apparently believing that by doing so the flood water on the property would drain into the sewer system. But the man did not realize that the sewer pipe – fed by gravity – was already filled with a tremendous amount of water rushing downhill toward the ELSA plant.  

“Because of the large amount of water moving in the line, it created a vacuum whirlpool effect,” the chief said. “The conditions were extreme”

As the vortex sucked down the flood water in which he was standing, the property owner was pulled into the sewer pipe as well, Posluszny said. Another man standing nearby was partially drawn into the manhole but he was able to claw his way out to safety with the help of others.

Within seconds of the 911 call being received in the communications center at the township police station, numerous police officers were racing to Bakers Basin Road. The first officers who arrived on scene reportedly grabbed ropes and flashlights and ran toward the manhole, but there was little they could do with water still being sucked into the hole and the man nowhere in sight.  

Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service personnel, the township’s daytime duty crew of career firefighters and crews from Lawrence’s three volunteer fire companies – Slackwood, Lawrence Road and Lawrenceville – also responded and immediately requested assistance from the Trenton Fire Department’s marine rescue task force.

In the initial stages of the rescue operation, it was unclear if the sewer line emptied into the adjacent D&R Canal. A Trenton Fire Department jet ski was launched to search the murky canal, while other firefighters walked the towpath to scan the surface of the water.  

After examining maps of the sewer system and consulting with officials from ELSA, the New Jersey Water Supply Authority, and New Jersey State Park Police, it was confirmed that the sewer pipe does not drain into the canal but instead runs alongside the canal and flows south into the ELSA plant.

Firefighters said the pipe is 48 inches in diameter where the man was sucked in, but it reduces to 24 inches and then to 19 inches and then 12 inches at the plant. There are also at least two bends in the pipe, one of which is a 90-degree turn, they said.

Additional firefighters and rescuers were summoned to the scene from Ewing Township’s Pennington Road Fire Co., West Windsor Emergency Services, Plainsboro Fire Co., Hopewell Borough Fire Co., and several fire companies from Hamilton Township (including Hamilton, DeCou Hose, and Colonial).  

Hoping that there might be air pockets trapped within the pipe that would allow the man to breathe, emergency crews frantically worked with officials from ELSA to remove as much water as possible from the sewer pipe.

A sewer system pump that directs water into the pipe was shut off, while sand bags and other materials were used in an effort to block the pipe upstream of where the man was pulled in. Portable pumps were used farther downstream to pull water from the pipe, and a vacuum truck was even brought in to help speed up the water evacuation process.

Once the flow of water going into the ELSA plant was stopped, firefighters were able to safely open several other manhole covers along the way. It was from these openings that they used the portable pumps to remove water, while at the same time using flashlights to keep a watch down the holes for the missing man.

A camera from Hamilton Township’s Department of Water Pollution Control was brought in to help search the pipe. Such a camera from Hamilton was used by Trenton police in October 2007 to locate a suspected car thief who, while trying to elude authorities, had crawled about 75 feet into a stormwater drainage pipe behind the Trenton train station.

Township public works crews, meanwhile, helped out as well by using chainsaws and other equipment to clear away small trees, brush and other debris along the canal towpath to provide better access for rescue equipment.

At about 6:15 p.m., with daylight quickly fading, light trucks from Ewing’s Prospect Heights Fire Co. and Hamilton’s Enterprise Fire Co. were sent to join the other fire apparatus on scene to provide illumination for the rescuers.

Police Chief Posluszny and Lawrence Township Manager Richard Krawczun were among the officials who stood by at the incident command post, trying to remain optimistic but losing hope with each passing minute.

At about 7 p.m. the water level in the pipe was low enough for emergency personnel – specially trained in confined-space rescue – to be lowered down the manhole and into the pipe to search for the man.

These rescuers searched the pipe in stages, relocating to different manholes along the pipe’s path to the ELSE plant.

Finally, sometime before 10 p.m., they located the victim’s body, Posluszny said.

Representatives of the Mercer County Medical Examiner’s Office arrived at the ELSA plant at about 11 p.m. to take charge of the body.    

The police chief said the circumstances of the tragedy remain under investigation by Detective William Chester.

The 200 block of Bakers Basin Road was hit hard by Hurricane Irene. The entire area was flooded by several feet of water Sunday during the storm.

About two dozen people and pets – including two pregnant women and several children – had to be rescued from the flooded homes on Sunday by volunteer firefighters using boats. And on Monday, the basement wall of one of the Bakers Basin Road homes collapsed, prompting township inspectors to condemn the building.

While Lawrence Township firefighters were committed at Bakers Basin Road Tuesday, volunteer firefighters from Princeton Fire Department and West Windsor’s Princeton Junction Fire Co. stood by at the Lawrence Road firehouse to protect the township in case any other emergencies were reported. During this time, they responded to an odor of gas at the Avalon Run apartment complex near Quakerbridge Road.


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