Toddler dies after falling into sewage pit, NT Police investigating

Police have launched an investigation after a two-year-old child died days after falling into a sewage pit.

NT Police are investigating an incident where a toddler died days after falling into a sewage pit.

A two-year-old boy has died in hospital five days after falling into a sewage pit at a property west of Alice Springs.

NT Police said they received a call reporting the boy fell into the pit in the Mt Liebig community on Wednesday afternoon.

They said the boy was taken to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide in a “critical but stable condition” after local clinic staff used CPR to resuscitate and stabilise them.

Police said an investigation into the incident was under way and no further details would be provided.

They said a report would be prepared for the coroner.

Septic tank lids in Katherine (left) and the Barkly region (right) taken after children fell into the sewage pits. The warning was issued in August, just eight months before a child fell into a sewage pit and later died in hospital in Alice Springs. Picture: NT WorkSafe

NT WorkSafe previously warned children could die if septic tank lids were not properly checked after two incidents in the past two years.

In December 2021, an 18-month-old child fell head-first through an unsecured septic tank lid and a four-year-old child fell through an unsecured lid into a full septic tank in August 2022.

“We were fortunate in both incidents somebody saw the event and was able to get the child out,” an NT WorkSafe spokesman said in August.

The spokesman said it was the responsibility of commercial business owners to ensure tanks and lids are safe and won’t collapse if walked on.

An NT WorkSafe spokesman on Tuesday said the organisation had not been notified of the incident, and it had not been established if the incident was within NT WorkSafe’s jurisdiction.

“Preliminary information we have is the incident did not occur at a commercial premise,” he said.