Horse Falls Into Open Trench, Dies

Tuesday, September 25th 2007, 9:45 pm

By: News On 6

A horse died Tuesday after it fell into an open work trench that was dug by the City of Tulsa. The family that owns the horse is angry because the city dug the trench a couple of years ago and never filled it in. The News On 6â€™s Emory Bryan reports on Tuesday the city was working to remove the dead horse from the trench, and trying to figure out how that hole was left open for so long.

Shimica Reed's 14-year-old horse, named Yeller, fell in an open trench at 3800 E. 32nd Street North that was dug to repair a water main.

â€œNow picture this, if this had been my 14-year-old child down there with her neck broken from falling into a trench dug three years ago,â€ horse owner Shimica Reed said.

It's been an open trench so long trees have sprouted and grown up from the bottom. The trench is on the back side of a pasture, out of sight from the road, but Reed and Jerry Goff say they both reported it to the city.

"When we need them, they wouldn't come," Tulsan Jerry Goff said.

The owners of the horse say they've called the city again and again to tell them about the problem, and now they can't believe it's taken a dead horse to get the city to take some action.

When the city got the report that a horse had fallen in the hole there was an immediate response. The sewer department strung up a fence to keep other horses away and then animal welfare responded to try to figure out what happened, while it was up to the water department to get the horse out of the hole.

At this point, the city isn't sure who dropped the ball.

"Every now and then we get, we do about 7,000 work orders a year and occasionally a piece of paper gets left in a truck, and the work falls through," Rick Caruthers with the City of Tulsa Water Department said.

What's clear is that a repair was made to a 36 inch water main and the hole was never filled in.

Shandle Goff was planning to ride the horse in a competition later this week.

"I think when it started thundering he got spooked, or maybe he was just walked and he just fell in," Shandle Goff of Tulsa said.

The family can try to get the city to pay them for the value of the horse, and they say theyâ€™re going to pursue that, starting with an examination of the horse to determine the cause of death. Meanwhile the city is starting it's own investigation to determine why and when the trench was dug out, and who should have filled it in.

Watch the video: City Investigating After Horse Falls Into Open Trench And Dies