To the editor:

On Oct. 2, I was walking between Eighth and Ninth streets on the east side of Massachusetts when a piece of cracked sidewalk tripped me, causing me to crash face first onto the pavement. While I lay there, bleeding profusely, at least four passersby stopped to offer assistance. After helping me up, they took me to a nearby store where employees helped me to a chair, brought me water and called the paramedics, who arrived within minutes. After receiving first aid, I drove to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital emergency ward where I received further treatment for my injuries.

One purpose of this letter is to express my deepest thanks and appreciation to all who rendered assistance, the anonymous passersby, the paramedics, the store employees and the LMH staff, all of whom showed such concern and compassion. It turned what had been a negative experience into a positive one.

Yet this accident with resulting injuries need not have happened had the city made repairs to that section of sidewalk notorious for causing other accidents, according to the paramedics themselves and others personally known to me. Despite numerous complaints to the city, it has failed to remedy the situation. My injuries were bad enough, but will it take a fatality before the city decides to act?

Eva Edmands,

Lawrence