‘Worst Christmas ever,’ 10-year-old seriously hurt after manhole cover on U.S. 35 hits family van

DAYTON — A 10-year-old girl spent Christmas in the hospital after a manhole cover on U.S. 35 hit the bottom of the van her family was riding in on Christmas Eve.

“She had broken both of her legs due to a open sewer drain lid that came up through the floorboard,” said Amanda Helfinstine, the 10-year-old’s mother.

In addition to having both of her legs broken, Helfinstine told News Center 7 Monday night that her daughter now has appendicitis as a result of her injuries and will be going into surgery.

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Alonna Thomas, 10, of Brookville, was a rear passenger in her grandmother’s minivan when the crash happened around 10:45 a.m. Christmas Eve on the westbound side of U.S. 35 near Smithville Road.

“They were heading to my house for Christmas Eve dinner to start Christmas Eve dinner,” Helfinstine said. “It’s been the worst Christmas ever.”

Thomas’ road to recovering will be long, her mother said.

Thomas is a youth cheerleader in Brookville and her mom said she she’s been having a difficult time after the crash.

“They’re trying to do pain management right now to get it under control, but she’s suffering from PTSD from it,” Helfinstine said. “She’s just been suffering really badly.”

Helfinstine said she hopes her daughter will get out of the hospital soon, but said they are now checking to see if her injuries have developed infections.

Issues with the manhole on the highway were first reported more than two hours before the crash, when a truck driver spotted it around 8:20 a.m.

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“In the high-speed lane just by the Smithville overpass there’s an open manhole, the cover is lying on the side of the road,” a caller said when he spoke to a police dispatcher.

A Dayton police officer ended up responding to the area and reported that he was able to fix the issue around 8:40 a.m. after putting the cover back on the hole, according to emergency dispatch traffic.

Around 10:35 a.m., a second person reported issues with the manhole cover.

“In the far left lane, the manhole cover is flipped up in the air,” the second caller said. “If someone hit that it could probably cause a major problem there.”

That’s exactly what happened when Thomas’ grandma hit the manhole cover less than 10 minutes later. Thomas’ aunt, who also was in the minivan, called 911.

“It’s sticking up out of the road and we hit it,” Thomas’ aunt said. “It the bottom of the van floor and the floor came up.”

City of Dayton workers are now “researching the facts of this incident,” a spokesman for the city said.

“It is of course the City’s policy to respond to repair needs ASAP when they occur in its areas of responsibility,” the spokesman said in a statement.

The other six people who were in the minivan were not injured, according to a Dayton crash report.

Dayton police wrote in their crash report that the minivan was going about 50 mph when it “struck a manhole cover that was elevated in the roadway.”

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