Teenager Falls Into Open Manhole While Texting

i see the articles on giz about peoples' headphones getting hit by lightning, people falling into sewers, ect ect. and i think "i wish i this stuff would happen to me because then i would have a giz article about me!!!" my dream is to have a gizmodo article about me

I'd have laughed more if she was actually hurt. Call me what you want, but that's Darwinism at work right there. Was really wishing for a cop today when I was driving south on I75 in a construction zone and some moron goes flying by with his cell on the top of the wheel texting.

yeah, and I get laughed at for being pissed about people driving and texting.

Tirkoâ„¢

If the DEP workers had the cones in place, the girl would have not lost her shoe since she would have tripped over it and gone in head first.

@my secret identity: you just described me perfectly.

@Con Seannery: I'm with you. I'd also let it be the last time I texted without paying attention to my surroundings. She's lucky she only fell into a manhole, and didn't walk into traffic or something truly dangerous. People are stupid!

Would you think it would help if she was overweight? Getting stuck at the rims instead of actually falling all the way through?

My point is, you DO NOT want to be in the sewer.

The Nacon

@dr2538:
No, I'm there with you. It's the stupid one's that give us a bad image.

@dr2538:
dude i am so with you.

and my secret identity i like all those things too :)

ra2daj

@drokcab: Unfortunately, I think the parent's might have a case in that there should have been warning signs (even if someone was off looking for them).

There's a reason people cover their asses with asinine warnings.

Stories like this make me proud to have grown up on Staten Island.

AlexTheSane

Mentally injured isn't what I'd call it.
More like "mentally disabled."

too bad there's no video on it.. Would love to watch her face as she's sinking in crap

Uncletwitch

In retrospect I'm curious as to whether he is more upset that he fell into the manhole...or that he lost his signal...

mikespug

@ChantalCurio: I don't understand Staten Islanders; compared to the Island's smell, I wouldn't describe the sewer as putrid.

En0s0ne... Now with auto-tune commenting

@sonicsurge: Sorry, she's not "mentally injured." Her mom's mentally frigtarded.

En0s0ne... Now with auto-tune commenting

I am guessing that her dad is a redneck, and her mom is a blonde.

@puffnstuff: They're called eyes, dude.

Con Seannery

even if the manhole was marked she still would not have seen it, i hope that if they sue they fail and get stuck with the lawyer fees

fullyrandomtandem

@sonicsurge: Mentally injured? If that were me, I'd shower for about 3 hours, burn my clothes I had on, and sit back for a good laugh about falling into a sewer...

Con Seannery

@dr2538: No idea how not alone you are. These kids that fuck it up for the rest of us need to die. I still barely understand half the crap that goes on in Facebook, now what the hell is all this Twitter nonsense?

ViewtifulJason

@bill cant fart: +1

@Leonce: I wonder if she was txt'ing her bff Jill?! :D

@drokcab: Just the way the mom's portrayed though, saying that she was also "mentally injured." I mean, c'mon.

Sadly, from a libel standpoint, they DO have a case against the city.

Yay, for being a strain on the city's already strained finances! Frivolous lawsuits that you can win, yaaaaay!

OOOOOOOH! I have a similar story!! I was about 11 and had just bought Super Mario Bros. Delux (free worm light at EB Games!) and was playing it non-stop on my GBA. My parents went out on our dock, that extends over a lagoon. Well, they decided I should join them, and called me out there. Not wanting to put my game down, I began to walk towards the dock while gaming. After a bit of grass under my feet, i then felt cement. "Oh, I must be getting closer to the dock," thought I, "get ready to step up onto the wood." Next thing I know, I have walked straight off of our seawall and into the lagoon! (Luckily not a long drop: 2.5 feet, maybe.) My first instinct? Hold my Gameboy as high as I could to keep it from getting wet. It worked for 6 more months until it finally succumbed to its saltwater incident.

@rudolphdude: Look both ways before you cross the street.

DeMarkracy

God damn, I'm going to text and fall down a flight of stairs and sue the owners of the building.
This shit is so frivolous. She deserved it.

drokcab

@dr2538: I think everyone hates teenagers.

Mr. Fluffykins

Reminds me of that Mel Brooks comment: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." Seeing as she didn't die, and had cut her back, then this is a tragedy right? Or, is it like a double negetive sort of thing, so comedy?

LauraGuanaco

haha i heard this story this morning from my mom! and dont laugh at staten island! not cool! =]~

ChantalCurio

HAHA!

@Reil: yeah but it also came with pre internet swimsuit porn once a year.

RealTomatoKetchup

The "Made in India" font is larger than the NYC font O.o

@iGo: You shoulda pushed her into an open manhole.

Mentally injured? She fell down a bloody hole from not looking where she was going!

@rudolphdude: Your analogy doesn't work. It would work if you said she crossed the road and got hit by a car who was going through a green.

Charles Ip

omg your not going to believe whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

hihai411

I have a feeling that if she didn't notice a hole in the ground, she probably would not have noticed an orange cone either. It seems like a hole in the ground would be warning enough not to walk there. I doubt an orange cone or two, or a "do not walk in this vacinity while texting" sign would have helped any.

Jeremidas

@iGo: Gross. Maybe a little TOO gross...

@my secret identity: 'Arsh... 'Arsh, but fair.

Silly kids. Don't they know you shouldn't walk and text unless you have spider sense?

Invisible-Echidna

@3DaysTillTheState_GitEmSteveDave: Yeah... Gross. Any one stupid enough to fall down a sewer is "mentally injured" in the first place.

Damn teenagers and their stupid texting. Other day I walked into a girl while she was texting around the corner. She calls me, "watch it, perv!!"... WTF moment for me!!

If I could prove how perv I was, I would have shove that cellphone hers into her ..... and keep on sending her text messages. So she gets little bursts of enjoyment, but not for long. :P

@dr2538: nope, i hate the stupid ones among us too

Technogamer1992

At least it wasn't a trolley that fell into the manhole because the driver was texting... That could have been much worse.

gomerkyle9

Teenager: Only people who can spend all their time looking down and not notice an open manhole cover.

Charles Ip

@my secret identity:
"As a teenager (technically)" = you are 113 - 119 years old?

Scotland

@--Tito--: Its her fault for not paying any attention. . .

How hard was it for the person who wrote the MSNBC article to write this: "The family said they will file a lawsuit -- for what, though, is not immediately clear."


Instead of this: "The family said the will file a lawsuit -- for what? Probably so they have enough food to feed all the inbred children that they reproduced..."


Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but probably deserved.

@rudolphdude: Who would put themselves in a position that could potentially harm themselves?

England's got it right. If you sue in England and lose, you must pay all the other side's legal fees. A law like that in the U.S. would probably curtail 90% of these ridiculous lawsuits. Idiots like this dumb bitch and her litigious family are little more than walking diaper stains and are a scourge to decent society.

NoelZavala

Ha ha! Girls are so stupid!

@Unspellable: Probably not the only thing she lost...

@dr2538: As a teenager (technically), I find it quite annoying when other teenagers give us a bad name. We're not all stoner faggot hippies. Some of us like the simple joys of Classic Rock, the abundance of the Earth's natural resources, and like to walk a fine line between having a social conscious and being a complete dork.

I disagree with the assertion. If the manhole was not marked, then it was not her fault. This is no more her fault than if she was texting while crossing the street on a white cross walk sign and hit by a car that ran a red. At most 10 percent her fault? Sue away.

How often are you planning on using the Alexa Longueira tag????
Added more question marks for emphasis.

Retarded parents. . . Who would sue for incompetence? Its clearly the daughter's fault for not paying any attention.

I wonder if there where any security cameras around with footage. . .Cause I want to see it hehe. . .

It's time we stand up and oppose this faceless oppressor that has been holding us down for so long! For the sake of all of us, I hope her family sues Gravity off the face of the, uh... space-time continuum!

ROFL i almost got hit by a car the other day for checking my phone xD

LinkinPain

Well, at least this is better than texting and driving. The only one at risk is the texter.

@onewiththewurlitzer: ah, indeed. I remember how that was one of the first "3d" like game on the nes

@t3chn0v1k1ng: Psh, that shoe doesn't even have SMS abilities.

Isn't there an app for that? Where you can see while you text?

@switchblade saints: first thing that came to me as well, except the text in the game was, "who turned out the lights?"

Too bad the open manhole didn't lead to a bottomless pit.

Telecinision

@Dreadfish: I'm thinking she's more likely to grace here first

http://www.darwinawards.com/ (how do you make them proper URL's in the new system, anyone?)

Hey, I have a great idea...
You know how Lexsux & Mercedes have a collision avoidance system.
Maybe future cellphones will have a collision avoidance system that uses the Cellphone Camera to alert you of an impending disaster.

@KeepingTheForeName_GitEmSteveDave: yeah I was left hanging too, like this was a trailer for a new suspense film. Im with you git_em. DAN,WE WANT SPOILERS!

What's even worse is it wasn't her phone. It was her friend. Which makes me wonder, why didn't her friend warn her?
And there's still a shoe down there, but where is the phone? So it's too putrid for a shoe, but not quite putrid enough for a expensive friends phone?

@t3chn0v1k1ng:
inb4 star

Colin Cassady

brb sewer

RuBBa_cHiKiN

I wonder if the same girl will ever walk and text again.
How long until she next graces Gizmodo?
Tune in next time for the action packed conclusion!

@dr2538: Oh no I feel the same way. It's teenagers like this that give other teenagers a bad name.

"made in India" we cant even make a sewer manhole lid?

Sam43054

@Valnen: True but somehow I feel like they would sue rather or not the cones were there. I think that if she hadn't of been texting she would have seen it and been fine. But whatever.

ok, so am i the only teenager who hates teenagers?

dr2538

@MF350z: It's sort of their job to put down those cones, you know. Failing to do that job means they're responsible.

Maybe they should sue the cell phone company for not providing an on screen preview of where you are walking while texting.

Ok maybe she should just realize that she's stupid for not paying attention. Why does everyone feel that they to find someone to blame these days?

be careful with the hooooooole!

Franqui

reporters have recovered an image of said shoe

t3chn0v1k1ng

@Leonce: bravo!

@JaXs: NYC should sue her parents for reproducing.

Well, being a Staten Islander myself...I can tell you first hand that I constantly feel like I'm falling into a sewer.

mixtronic87

Don't be an idiot or I will sue you.

JaXs

omg, im fallin, ttyl?

Leonce

oh and I think the thing we should all notice is "girl from staten island"

survival of the fittest.

She lost a shoe in Staten Island?

cowabunga, dude!

@mferrari: "We should remove all the warnings from everything and let the problem work itself out" For the most part, I agree with this. But then again, if all stupid people/idiots died, who would we have to work at mcdonalds?

Zander

The manhole should have been covered or barricaded. Period. Regardless if she was distracted by a car horn, cell phone, or passersby, this should have been prevented by the dumbasses working in the sewer.

Sure she was texting but still, an open manhole in a huge extremely populated city is just asking for an accident.

@3DaysTillTheState_GitEmSteveDave: Doesn't work quite like that. It's not subtracting from the panel.

We take 6 people at a time from a panel, do voir dire, and see if there's anyone there we don't like. The panel usually skews older anyway. Plus, after two rounds, we get some bonus strikes.

It's like a psychotic Monopoly game.

Sadly, The city will probably consider implementing a law that makes texting while walking a ticketable offense. Its unfathomable that she is suing them. Usually manhole covers are in the middle of the street. She's lucky she wasn't hit by a car.

The-Spectre

Made in India. I wonder how much shipping charges are for a hunk of metal. I'll take two!

thelastnamehere

@ITLawMan: Libel? It what way did the city commit defamation?

@Maori_Yelir: Liability is more complex than that. First of all, how much time had elapsed from opening the manhole to the accident?

Second, there is still the defense of "open and obvious condition". There is no duty to warn or barricade against the open and obvious.

Third, there is the girl's own culpable conduct in failing to see what there is to be seen - like an open manhole.

This would be a suit against NYC-DEP - pursuant to Gen. Mun. 50, she has 90 days to file a Notice of Claim. Then there's the 50-h hearing and the 50-i physical examination.

Finally, she's going to have to hope that she gets a somewhat sympathetic judge. The Administrative Judge for Richmond County, Justice Philip Minardo, is notoriously hard-nosed. As a defense attorney, I'd love to have this case in his Part.

This isn't a summary judgment case from a plaintiff's point-of-view. It is highly defensible and from the fact pattern, I'd evaluate a liability split of at least 50/50 with 25% liability on defendants likely and 10% liability on defendants well within the realm of possibility.

Moreover, the injuries are bumps and bruises. A bulging disc is worth about $15,000 in Richmond County. She doesn't have a bulging disc; she has abrasions and contusions. The max settlement value assuming 100% liability is $5,000.

I'd make a pre-suit offer of $1,000, a pre-deposition offer of $2,000, and after that take a no-pay position all the way.

@OMG! Ponies!: It was her friends phone, not hers. Also, would you have enough premtory challenges during voir dire to get that jury you want?

@dr2538: there are teenagers here? shit.

@OMG! Ponies!: The one thing they would jump on is the fact that the cones were missing. Unfortunately with all the damn regulations in place they might have a chance because there was no marker. They wouldn't win a lot of money even if they did but either way the city is going to be so far up the ass of anyone that does work involving manholes it's going to just help to create more stupid laws and regulations about nothing just because soem 15 year old brat had to text "omg no wai" to her BFF Jill.

Maori_Yelir

Why is no one addressing the fact that the manhole was open with no fence or cones around it? I mean, shouldnt the cones go up before the manhole goes out? its just common sense... I say sue them all.

She's got about 3 months to find a lawyer stupid and skeezy enough to take up the case. She's got scrapes and bruises. That puts the pain&suffering settlement value around $1000 max, irrespective of fault.

Personally, I wouldn't represent her. The case defines the "culpable conduct of plaintiff" affirmative defense. From a defense standpoint, this is the kind of defend-to-the-end case that I love. I'd start off with a demand for her cell-phone records for the past two years and portray the girl as a texting fiend.

At the end of the day, there's a good chance that a Staten Island jury would find the girl to be a dopey teen. Just load the jury with people over the age of 55. It's a cartoonish fact pattern and it doesn't engender a lot of sympathy.

@Con Seannery: LOL - HILARIOUS.

santicity

Let's accelerate natural selection and place spikes on the bottom of manholes. Á'la Prince of Persia.

Gergely Kosztolányi

You didn't even have to add that they were going to sue. With a name like that in Staten Island that's a given.

Maori_Yelir

Just how oblivious do you have to be to fall into a hole in the middle of the ground? If she tripped instead of falling and scraped her knees, would the family sue?

When her mum said her daughter is mentally injured, does it means her child is a retarded?

thexile

Funny that this is exactly what happened on the season finale of Greek on ABC Family!

strells

@Reil: If shes too dumb to see a big hole in the ground, she deserved it. Stupid people shouldn't get money for their idiocy.

We should remove all the warnings from everything and let the problem work itself out.

I think the mom meant that the daughter was obviously mentally injured PRIOR to the incident as evidenced by the girl's idea that walking without looking is a good idea.

@Con Seannery: haha ouch that hurt the ribs

hehehe.....manhole

rodro

That's an idea for the next iPhone software update... Manhole-watch!

@itchytooth: You, sir, win for funniest comment of the day. You may claim your cookie at the bottom of the above referenced manhole.

Didn't this always happen in the old Buster Keaton silent movies? Invariably, he'd be standing around texting and a safe would fall out of a window on his head.

Ever notice there were a lot more safes and pianos being moved in the old days?

stuny

@dr2538: No, there are thousands of others, you just don't notice them because they're not acting like total retards all the time.

telepheedian

@Scotland: Lol, not quite. 19 to be exact. I just use the "technically" because I consider myself to be different than the stereotype.

And ra2daj & loofkid, good to know I'm not alone.

15 year + Staten Island=Not much of a surprise

Possinator

@sonicsurge: Yep... Mentally injured... because of the genes mom gave her. Too bad they don't have a flush handle for sewers.

grok666

@puffnstuff:

There actually is an app for that, lifehacker featured it but it's for emailing.

http://lifehacker.com/5256519/email-n-walk-lets-you-multitask-without-...

Gela Navarro

@Barry99705: You're actually sensible! Why do people see reason as evil so much. She wasn't looking where she was going, she should be punished for falling in. Society has reverse darwinism now. You sue for your stupidity. /endrant

@Reil:
AND it's an iPhone knockoff, or at least smells like one...

@switchblade saints: It's like those people who get trapped reaching into toilets after they drop a cellphone in it.

IMO, it's not relevant what she was doing when she fell in. The real issue is that there was an open manhole that was not marked with any sort of warning. That should never happen.

Wonder if she tweeted about it two seconds later.

Great. According to the pic, we even outsource manhole covers to India. Is there no pride left in this country?

dnheller

Ha! My ACME roll-up manhole worked!

It's both their fault. She wasn't watching where she was going and the DEP workers didn't mark the area before removing the manhole cover.

zakams

Gotta love the manhole.
N.Y.C. SEWER - MADE IN INDIA.

Edgar Khachatryan

"The Longueira family says they will sue"

arguably a more disgusting idea than falling into a sewer.

What ever happened to the good old fashioned method of, "looking where you're going"?

ottermann

This is why we need augmented reality texting apps.

orthorim

@lestat730: It was marked with a warning though. Huge hole in the fucking ground.

dangj307

SugarPlumHoney94: fell down hole. doesnt smell like strawberries 1 minute ago via SMS

Haha, Staten Island.
Haha, Idiots.
I wish she got hurt =\ dang.

@OMG! Ponies!: You wouldn't even need a jury over 55. I'm a teenager and I still see what she did as dopey. And suing for it? WHO is there to sue. As Giz points out, herself?

apple1loop

I live here, everyone here is trash, they don't pay attention. Drivers are insane cause they think they're awesome in their car. I'm surprised she wasn't in a group of orange tanned idiots who all fell in the manhole at once.

Mr_LaZy

@rodro: that's sexist... half of these holes should be renamed "womanholes"

Weihovah

Yeah right.

So I'll put on a blindfold and go walking aimlessly on the streets 'till I can lawsuit someone (if I don't get killed first)... and my MOM will say "he was also mentally injuried... poor thing, he's afraid of the dark".

I mean, really, how's that for evolution?
A caveman would hang himself up if only knew how stupid we've become...

What's next? Requiring the state to provide each one of us personal security that will not only warn us of the dangers of texting while walking, but also select the city scenarios we must or mustn't watch to avoid "mental injuries"?

Aw, c'mon!
If something that mother and girl should be thankful for the valuable lesson.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

What a dumbass! How do you fall into a manhole? Oh right...when you are texting and walking.

@Con Seannery: That's exactly what I did after my last date. How'd you know?

@OMG! Ponies!: Nothing on the fact that it was not HER phone, but rather a friends, and the friend did not warn her? Couldn't you argue negligence on the friend as she did not do what any "right person would" in warning her?

Unfortunately for the Longueira family, what the sewer claims, the sewer keeps. Last time Alexa was spotted she had grown twice the size of a normal human and she was riding down the sewers on a gigantic canary.

glamajamma

@Zander: No one, it would also solve the Americans being fat problem.

Actually if I was the defense, I'd argue that she benefited from falling into the manhole.

She clearly has a pattern of texting in a manner that could kill her. Because she fell in the manhole , she might think twice about TEXTING WHILE DRIVING in the future. This is a lesson learned.

By failing to place cones, they probably saved her life.

If they give her money and reward her for texting like an idiot, it will only encourage her to text while doing other activities.

Let's send a message loud and clear, and save this girl's life.

dcartist

the manhole was in the middle of a sidewalk. see the video

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/nyc/090710_Texting_Teen_Falls_Down_Open_Manhole

thelastnamehere

@inhaler97: Common sense is also to watch where you're going. It's no coincidence that the people that did have common sense were able to avoid the manhole.

And the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree as the mother defends her daughters dangerous habits by placing the blame onto others.

There are too many recent news events where people have died from car wrecks, train accidents etc., and the mother should be happy that her daughter only has a few scratches and one less shoe from this careless incident.

@ITLawMan: I don't understand how this in any way qualifies as libel.

badhatharry

@philibuster:
You mean those things actually work?!
After watching the coyote for a while, it made me question the quality of their products :D

SpartanFry

You get what you deserve for being stupid. It would have been less funny if she was following GPS. "I told it to find the closest turd!" *splat*

ha

Staten Island. A true laugh. We should just disown them as a borough. I can see the new surgeon general warning on phones: "Caution: There may be other obstacles in your way as you move while preoccupied by a cellular device."

@OMG! Ponies!: I'm not siding with the girl for being dummy and not watching where she was walking.
But from a legal stand point, WHY was the man hole open BEFORE there was "deliniation" done.
"Deliniation" here being the key word. Deliniation in engineering road work means traffic cones, soft or hard barricades, flashers or etc...
If the DEP guys were "looking" for cones when she fell in. Case is done. She won.
If deliniation is not there to "highlight or call attention" to an item, you might not see it with your peripheral vision... black pavement/black hole you get the picture. Even a driver can drive into it.

aec007

@OMG! Ponies!: u r smrt

Hey, if the workers (and by extension, the city that employs them) shouldn't be held responsible for not marking an open manhole, why should they bother putting up cones at all?

There are lots of old-fashioned ways to not notice a safety hazard -- texting is just one more entry on the list.

Dayv

@hakufirefox: No, there was no signal there :(

derilium

@dr2538: I am taking the liberty to join your club, as well.