HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — One woman hopes that if problems are reported, they will be addressed more quickly and incidents like what happened to her son will not happen again.

Here in this northeast Houston neighborhood, going for a walk is normal for Karla Torres’ family. But since August, that’s been hard for her 10-year-old son Allen.

“He doesn’t want to walk with his grandmother,” Torres said.

Torres told ABC13 he was with his grandmother when he fell into an uncovered drain while returning from a store near Duncan Street and East Crosstimbers Street.

“I came out of the house. I see the fire and the ambulance. I see my son laying on the floor, basically where my feet are. He was laying here,” Torres said.

A neighbor managed to save him first, and immediately after that he was sent to the hospital. Torres says he had a few minor fractures.

The hole is now covered, but that doesn’t put his mind at ease. Just around the corner, another drain wasn’t. Torres also showed ABC13 damage to a nearby roadside drainage ditch.

“If someone falls, they can get hurt. They can even die. You don’t know what can happen to that person,” she said.

She tried to take legal action after her son fell, but the case was dropped after the city said they weren’t notified about the hole before he fell.

ABC13 reached out to Houston Public Works about the issues in the neighborhood, and a spokesperson for the department encourages residents to call 3-1-1 and report anything that needs fixing.

After Eyewitness News spoke to them, a cap was also placed on the other drain.

Torres hopes that after hearing her son’s story, her fellow residents in the community will begin to take action.

“Basically, I just want people to speak up because sometimes we don’t report things like this and when incidents happen. I want to do anything that will help the community, myself and my son,” she said.

As for the damaged drain, the city has identified it, but no action plan has yet been put in place.

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