A woman had just parked her car on Calle Pintor Soriano Quirós (Granada), opened the door and climbed out when instead of placing her foot on a firm pavement, she literally fell into an open manhole. The metal cover was missing and had been for around a month, because somebody had stolen it.

As a result, the woman received quite nasty injuries to both of her knees, taking 141 days to put right, 35 of which caused her to be absent from work. She set about suing the City Hall, because nobody had bothered to cover up this gaping trap in all that time between when the manhole cover was stolen and her inadvertently falling into it.

The judge decided in the woman’s favour, awarding her 7,400 euros to be paid over by the City Hall. Furthermore, it’s a closed verdict, meaning that there can be no appeal.

However, the two most interesting things in this whole incident are not the woman’s knees (?), but the manhole cover being stolen in the first place, and the City Hall’s very tardy response to rectifying this defect. The same thieves, no doubt, have also stolen more of them in the same street. Normally, they might go missing as a prank, but never as booty – a sign of the economic times, it seems.

As for the City Hall, not only did they fall down in not replacing the missing cover, but they also neglected to take any steps to cordon off or temporarily cover over this mantrap. We’re talking about, after all, the very places where pedestrians are directed to walk, so it is not as if you had to go out of your way to fall into one.

Anyway, should anybody know of any such uncovered manholes, be so kind as to email the Publisher as he could do with 35 days off work and 7,400 euros.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia=