Aussie toddler dies after falling into remote sewage pit
The two-year-old died in hospital five days after the incident, and follows several near-tragedies involving septic tanks.
A remote community in the Northern Territory is mourning the tragic death of a two-year-old boy.
The toddler fell down a sewage pit at the Mt Liebig community, about 325 kilometres west of Alice Springs, last Wednesday afternoon, police said in a statement to Yahoo News.
“Local clinic staff attended the scene and undertook CPR before stabilising the child,” police said.
Mercy dash to Adelaide hospital
Suffering life-threatening injuries, the two-year-old was then rushed to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide in a “critical but stable condition”.
However, the toddler died on Monday, five days after he fell into the pit.
Northern Territory police have now launched an investigation into the incident and will prepare a report for the coroner.
Death follows ‘urgent’ warning
The toddler’s death comes eight months after a four-year-old fell through an unsecured lid into a full septic tank after using the communal toilets at a commercial establishment in the Barkly Region. Fortunately the child’s parent witnessed the incident and was able to rescue them.
While a year earlier, in December 2021, an 18-month-old was playing outside their accommodation in Katherine when they fell head first through an unsecured lid into a septic tank. Again they were able to be pulled out after an older sibling spotted what happened.
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In the wake of these incidents, NT WorkForce issued an urgent warning to workplaces across the Territory to check that the septic tank lids on their properties were safe.
“Unsecured or fragile septic tanks are a major hazard if access to the lid is not limited or controlled,” it said in a statement online. “There is a risk of a fatal incident occurring if someone falls into a septic tank. This risk is significantly higher if the person is a young child.
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