CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In light of a child falling into a grease trap last November, a West Virginia Senate committee advanced a bill aimed at preventing a similar incident from happening again.
Under Senate Bill 240, restaurants and commercial food establishments would be required to make grease traps more secure. Outdoor traps would be required to have locked manhole covers designed to withstand expected loads.
The bill stems from five-year-old Kambria Cvechko falling into a grease trap in November outside of the Las Trancas restaurant in Charleston. Kambria’s mother, Kara, rescued her daughter with the help of two other children.
Sen. Glenn Jeffries, D-Putnam, said with Kara Cvechko, Kambria would have died.
“The purpose of this legislation is to make sure that we don’t have the kind of incident like this to happen again,” he said.
Jeffries is the bill’s lead sponsors.
The Kanawha County Commission endorsed such a policy in November. President Kent Carper called such grease traps “an unnecessary hazard.”
The state Senate will next consider the proposal.