A YOUNG boy was impaled by a broken trampoline that had been dumped by a flytipper in Erskine.

One of the sharpened legs sliced through his skin and fatty tissues, narrowly missing one of his main arteries and muscle wall.

Ethan Steel, eight, from Erskine was rushed to hospital where shards of metal were extracted from his wound and the gash was stitched up.

This shocking incident comes ahead of the uncertainty surrounding the skips in the area, which will be unmanned at the end of the month.

Ethan was out playing with his older brother and neighbour on Saturday, June 18 when they wandered to an open field at Mains Street.

They spotted a trampoline in the grass behind St Anne’s Primary, which had been broken and dumped by flytippers.

Not realising the danger, Ethan fell off and onto a sharpened pole protruding from the trampoline.

After hobbling home screaming and crying, his dad Chris took him to the A&E at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Staff at the RAH scrubbed out Ethan’s wound and extracted small pieces of metal, clothing fibres and grass from the gash.

After being given laughing gas and a local anaesthetic, Ethan received seven stitches and was taken home.

Eithan’s mum Aileen said: “All the poles on the trampoline were sharpened off at the end. He had a terrible cut and the metal only just missed one of his arteries.

“The consequences could have been much worse as the cut was inches away from the main artery near his groin.

“He won’t be able to take part in any sports or activities for the next few days but we are going on holiday next week so hopefully this won’t spoil his time away.”

After getting over the shock of leaving the hospital, Aileen realised that the trampoline was still sitting there so returned to the spot where she dismantled it and took it to the Erskine dump.

She said: “We want to raise awareness for other kids and want to shame whoever was careless enough to dump it.

“It took us 20 minutes to cut it up then drive up the road to the Erskine dump.

“I think getting rid of the services in Erskine will only make this situation worse – some items that are dumped can be very dangerous.

“If there are people that are so lazy they can’t even get rid of their rubbish in Erskine, it will be worse for those who don’t have cars to take it to Paisley.”

Flytipping is illegal and and anyone caught breaking the law could face a fixed penalty notice of £200.

If they are taken to court they could face a fine of up to £40,000 or imprisonment.

A politician believes that although flytippers are responsible for their actions, having the right services will reduce the risk of it happening again in the future.

Councillor Ian Nicolson, SNP for Erskine and Inchinnan said: “It is appalling that a child was hurt as a result of flytipping.

“The best thing to prevent it happening again is providing the public with decent facilities.

“It’s already enough effort for people to recycle or dispose of their waste responsibly so taking away services or making them further away will make it even more difficult.

“The council are reducing services to save money but they should be making it easier for people to recycle otherwise fly tipping like this will worsen.”

Councillor Eddie Devine, convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Environment Policy Board said: “The fact is that this item was dumped before any changes to our recycling services have been made.

“The incident occurred because someone dumped this item without any thought that it could cause harm to a child.

“Items of this kind can be taken to recycling facilities or collected by our Special Uplifts service.

“The vast majority of Renfrewshire residents dispose of their waste responsibly and there is no reason to believe that they will start to break the law if changes are made to recycling services.

“It is important to stress that none of our recycling facilities will be closing and all will be covered by 24-hour CCTV and mobile inspection teams to ensure that no flytipping occurs.”