Teenagers rescue 90-year-old man from six-metre sinkhole
<p>Just two days before Christmas Alwyne Watkins was driving his mobility scooter through an oval at Wallsend in the NSW Hunter region when the ground opened up beneath him. There was no time to think and if it wasn’t for a group of quick-thinking teenagers who saved him, Alwyne is certain what fate would have befallen him.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t be here,” the 90-year-old said.</p>
<p>“They saved my life. The four of them are heroes in my eyes.”</p>
<p>Jackson Rickford, Michael Zechel and Elijah Startin, 16 and 17 years of age, were playing soccer when they saw Alwyne approach. He stopped in a middle of path and then seemed to vanish.</p>
<p>“I sprinted over and jumped the fence because I thought he’d had a fall,” said Michael. </p>
<p>“Then I looked under my feet and I could see all the way down. It scared the hell out of me.”</p>
<p><img width="459" height="258" src="http://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/xeqZeRWbggz2D8A9GTEsMK/e9f5796f-6432-4f30-9576-91e449ae300d.jpg/r0_195_4872_2934_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg" alt="Mr Watkins stands next to the sinkhole that swallowed his mobility scooter. Photo: Simone De Peak" class="story-image__image" style="opacity: 1; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p>
<p>Alwyne has been swallowed by a six-metre sinkhole. Luckily, the scooter had wedged him close to the surface and Michael managed to lift the scooter and pull Alwyne to stable ground.</p>
<p>The boys called triple-0 and Alwyne was taken to the nearby hospital. Luckily, injuries were minor and only needed a few stitches.</p>
<p>“All I knew was that I was driving, and the next moment my head was level with the ground,” Alwyne recalled.</p>
<p>His damaged scooter was replaced by a new one for free by a local mobility scooter business.</p>
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