Man survives mile-and-a-half-long trip through sewage system

Firefighters who rescued a contract worker from a Raymore sewage drain say he's lucky to even be talking. Twenty-seven-year-old Daniel Collins spent two hours in raw sewage after a harness he was wearing fell apart. He was then swept away by a torrent of raw sewage down a narrow pipe. That pipe was just 27 inches wide. As for what's in the pipe, a Raymore engineer described it as whatever you brush or flush.

"It was really nasty," said Antonio Smith, the firefighter who rescued Collins. "Once you pop the cover, the methane gas just comes up to you, kind of stings you a little bit." Raymore's Director of Public Works said Collins fell in the manhole at 615 Foxwood Drive. The sewage, running three thousand gallons a minute, forced Collins, a man weighing 130 pounds, through the narrow pipe and took him past 27 manhole covers. Firefighters found Collins a mile and a half away next to Creekmore Lake.

Firefighters described his body as banged up, battered and bruised. "We asked him if he could get up, and he kind of stumbled to the ladder," Smith said. "By then his knees were buckling, so we knew he was kind of weak." Collins was shivering and suffering from hypothermia. Firefighters worked to get his soiled, wet clothes off while they waited for the air ambulance.

Raymore's Director of Public Works said the crew, out of Springfield, was finishing up about a month-long project of relining 4,000 feet of sewer. There were expected to finish this week. OSHA is investigating the accident. Collins is being treated for hypothermia and is being given antibiotics to ward off any bacteria he may have picked up.

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Mo. man survives mile-plus trip through sewer