Geelong teenager Jesse Holt recalls his 10m fall down unguarded North Geelong water pit

One moment he was riding his bike, doing what he loves, not long after he was being winched out of a concrete pit by emergency services and flown to Melbourne.

Jesse Holt on Thursday. Picture: Alan Barber.

A love of trucks and trains led to Geelong teenager Jesse Holt finding himself almost 10m down a stormwater pit earlier this week.

The 16-year-old had caught the train to North Shore station from Marshall on Monday afternoon, from where he set off on his bike, as he had done many times before, to take photos of big rigs that are a common sight in the industrial hub.

As dusk rolled in, Jesse said he was riding south on the verge of Corio Quay Rd, parallel to the railway tracks and nearby the Separation St overpass, when things took a dramatic turn.

“I didn’t even see it as I like looking towards the train line and I’ve just gone straight in, pretty much,” he recalled on Thursday.

Jesse was referring to the deep unguarded pit, approximately 1.5m wide, that he later had to be rescued from by Fire Rescue Victoria officers before being flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital with lower-body injuries.

“I saw it at the last second, hit the front brake, flipped over it and then I went back and fell down on my back, but some of my boot, there was a metal ladder that went down the side of it … my boot did hit that to slow down the fall,” he said.

“I didn’t have any reaction time, and the grass was like these kind of mound things, but I was still riding through it as I was going fairly quick, but I couldn’t turn in time.”

The stormwater pit in question.

Jesse, who was not wearing a helmet, said he called a friend for help because he wasn’t keen on emergency services getting involved.

After an hour of failed attempts to extricate Jesse and his “mangled” mountain bike – and with darkness and injury pains well and truly setting in – a call was made to the FRV just before 7pm.

Officers use a tripod rescue system to bring him back to ground level where Ambulance Victoria paramedics treated injuries to his lower back and pelvis.

The rescue operation on Monday evening.

Jesse was transported to North Geelong oval and flown to Melbourne – he left hospital less than 48 hours later.

“I’m really lucky I didn’t break anything,” he said.

“It’s sort of made me, I don’t know, a bit timid …(but) it’s not going to completely scare me off … I was really scared when it happened.”

Asked if he had learnt anything from the experience: “Just keep looking ahead.”

“But it (the pit) should have been covered, definitely,” he added.

The pit following the fall.

It remains unclear who is responsible for maintaining the pit, with the City of Greater Geelong, Barwon Water and the Department of Transport and Planning all claiming it wasn’t theirs.

The concrete pit was surrounded by plastic meshing and partly covered by a wire frame by Tuesday morning.

Originally published as Geelong teenager Jesse Holt recalls his 10m fall down unguarded North Geelong water pit