TRAVIS, N.Y. (WABC) — A teenager is recovering after falling several feet into an open manhole. She was texting and walking when it happened.
“I fell in a hole,” Alexa Longueira said. The Travis resident laughs about it now, but when the accident happened, it was a shock. She was walking along Victory Boulevard about to read a text message on her girlfriend’s cell phone when the sidewalk was suddenly gone. “Like, there was no warning about a big, open hole,” she said.
It was a big, open manhole. Alexa tumbled six feet underground and landed in four inches of raw sewage. “A manhole. My kid falls down a manhole,” Kim Longueira, said. In a word, Alexa’s mother says it was horrible. “She was smelly,” she said.
Alexa also had cuts across her arms and down her back. They know it could have been worse if the sewer had been full or if Alexa had hit her head.
Workers on the scene told kim they had left the manhole unattended in order to get cones to mark it off. “DEP is conducting a full investigation of what happened during a manhole incident on Victory Blvd. where workers were flushing a high-pressure sewer on Wednesday evening. We regret that this happened and wish the young woman a speedy recovery,” said DEP spokesperson Mercedes Padilla.
Meep Meep… Har!
The talk here seems mixed about who to assign blame to
I wonder if this will affect the poor girl’s career choices
Maybe the whole event and the attention to septic tanks et al will be so great that with the limelight and the fame she will enter a field of recovering lost jewelry and valuables from septic tanks
#19, Brad,
What ever happened to personal responsibility
Personal responsibility does not include the right to have all the corporate responsibilities dumped on the person.
The city has an obligation to protect the public from its actions. Another scenario might be what if some seven y/o kids were playing tag and one slipped and fell in? Or an elderly person with glaucoma that can barely see light and dark came by?
If she cross the road and was hit by a car she would sue GM ??
If she was hit by a car that couldn’t stop or avoid her due to a known manufacturing defect then probably she could.
Imagine two societies. In DumbASS USA, if you walk in public without paying attention and fall in an open manhole, you can recover money from the State for our collective negligence. What does this lead to?===More people not paying attention, people getting hurt, society paying for these retards.
Now, in Reasonable USA, if you walk in public not paying attention and fall in an open manhole, you cannot recover money from the State because it was mostly your own personal fault. This leads to city crews not putting out cones when they should and more people getting hurt–but it remains mostly their fault. Now, being “Reasonable” the state has universal healthcare and the injured person is thankful for getting help at the local hospital. In their own interest, they try to pay more attention next time.
TEST: In 20 words or less, how does Real USA fall in its own manhole cover?
This is an excellent metaphor for the whole country. We’re all down a shit hole, and most of us didn’t see it coming. Let’s call her situation performance art and send the kid a new iphone.
RTaylor… LOL! So true.
#24, RT,
I like it.
Just a thought: after we fire the incompetent worker and the incompetent supervisor, who do we get to fix sewer pipes?
If you ever wondered why you see 9 city workers standing around while the 10th guy digs a hole, it’s because of morans who can’t walk and look in the same direction.
#24 – agreed, and what are we doing to get out of the hole? A: dig some more!!
#27, chuck,
After they are fired the city could hire some people smart enough to erect barricades around open man holes.
#24 – RTaylor
Nice observation.
I actually did the same thing, although I was reading my mail on my phone when I did it. This was in Austin, Texas though. I fell about 4 feet down, banged up my shin on the way. Inside the manhole was a gas meter, not crap, thankfully.
# 29 Mr. Fusion said, on July 12th, 2009 at 10:56 am #27, “chuck, After they are fired the city could hire some people smart enough to erect barricades around open man holes.” I’m guessing you have never seen what city employees get paid. To hire good people you have to pay and provide some respect. Cities don’t do that, they just hire the minimum wage and treat them like dirt. Who cares if they leave, after all their just cheap labor. If you drank water from the tap, took a shower, washed clothes or dishes, or flushed a toilet today, thank a city employee for providing the service. Ok I will get of my soap box now.
#32, Clancy’s Dad,
You make a good point. This happened in New York however and they are decently paid AND unionized there.
I live outside of town and supply my own water, septic treatment, and garbage pickup. The only thing the county does for us is take care of the roads and I can’t complain about the job they do. Yes my taxes are low but so are the services.
I don’t have a problem with paying decent living wages to anyone. Just because they happen to work for me is not an excuse to pay minimum wages.
I would be more worried about her cuts getting infected after being dipped in raw sewage.
Why should she bother looking where she is going when she knows that she can sue someone if anything happens to her? There’s no need to take responsibility for yourself in the US anymore. A great use of our tax dollars again.
#35, Ducky,
Are you suggesting the City has no responsibility to protect the public?
Wait! Hold everything! What color was her hair?
I sense another blonde joke in the making . . .
sooo what were her sat scores? down the shit hole maybe?
JimR (#11)is on the right track. (Negligence vs. carelessness)
This silly,seemingly trivial situation has the potential to open up several pretty important issues. Texting while driving, personal resonsibility, frivolous lawsuits, health insurance, entitlement, governmental hiring practices…the list is long.
The workers (not their supervisor)should be reprimanded, not fired. The girl should have her cell phone taken away for some reasonable amount of time, even though it’s unlikely she’ll be deterred from texting at inappropriate times for very long.