A New York City teen suffered minor injuries after falling several feet into a big and open manhole. The 15-year-old girl, named Alexa Longueira, was texting and walking when the accident happened.
How the incident occurred
On Wednesday, the Travis resident was walking along Victory Boulevard about to read a text message on her girlfriend's cell phone when she suddenly tumbled 6 feet underground and landed in 4 inches of raw sewage.
"I fell in a hole," Alexa said. "Like, there was no warning about a big, open hole."
"I just look up and I look around and I thought it was something out of a movie where something was gonna take me under," she continued. "It was four or five feet, it was very painful. I kind of crawled out and the DEP guys came running and helped me. ... They were just, like, 'I'm sorry! I'm sorry!'"
Alexa suffered cuts across her arms and down her back, and is expected to recover soon.
"A manhole. My kid falls down a manhole," the teen’s mother Kim Longueira, said. "She's all scraped up on her back, under her arms and her shoulders. She was smelly."
According to Fox News, workers on the scene told Kim they had left the manhole open and unattended for just seconds in order to get cones from their truck to mark it off.
Probe launched
The Department of Environmental Protection says it is investigating.
"DEP is conducting a full investigation of what happened during a manhole incident on Victory Boulevard where workers were flushing a high-pressure sewer on Wednesday evening," said DEP spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla. "We regret that this happened and wish the young woman a speedy recovery."
Family Plans for a lawsuit
The Longueira family is reportedly planning to file a lawsuit as they think it could have been worse if the sewer had been full or if Alexa had hit her head.
Kim said the DEP workers should have been more diligent in enforcing safety protocols and barricading the manhole. She said DEP workers never should have left the manhole unattended, or at least marked it danger before removing its lid.
Kim said: "Something like that should never have happened. There should have been cones in place. There should have been a man in place."
Vacuous teen with chancer mother
Muppet should look where she was going and stopped and moved to the side of the pavement if she wanted to look somewhere else, like at her 'phone.
Darwin Award in the making, this kid - especially when she gets a driving licence!
Common sense? Er, nope...
Doh!
Hope the grasping mater loses and gets a stiff dressing down from the judge and her lawyer gets knocked down for brining a frivolous suit and wasting court time - assuming her lawyer isn't savvy enough to see it coming and decline the case.
I think the mother is just
I think the mother is just looking for a payday just like everyone else in this country. If that had happened as little as 5 years ago the mention of a law suit would have been laughed at. It was the girls fault that she fell in that hole. She should have been paying attention to where she was going. Now the only fault of the DEP worker is that they did not follow proper work rules when it comes to a manhole being opened. If you look it up that is considered a construction site and there should have been signs and warnings put in place prier to any work being started. At the very most these guys should be fired for putting the public safty at risk but the DEP should not be sued for this.
You guys are all morons
First of all I agree the girl & especially with a friend someone should have been paying attention however even the workers as well as the DEP has admitted that their were no warnings at the time. IF there was multiple workers why didnt one stand by the whole until cones or rails were brought so they are at fault as much as anyone else is. Also there is understandible reason to have worried about if she had hit her head especially maybe been knocked out & swept away or pulled under or down further out of reach of workers or even less room to move. Still I dont see the lawsuit being a huge settlement after all she is 50% responsible for it but then again we can't even protect out homes any more thanks to burglers cutting themselves or being trapped inside and having to eat dog food & sueing the would be victims & winning. I'm guess their get some money for the clothes and to shut them up she does deserve something but I dont think anyone should expect to retire soon. As for you morons who are blaming her and calling a 15 year old girl stupid because she fell are idiots. How many times have you done something stupid even gotten hurt doing it and then how many of those did you do without realizing it. None of you idiots can say you havent had your own stupidity moments let alone when you were 15 so blow it.
You guys are all morons
"How many times have you done something stupid even gotten hurt doing it and then how many of those did you do without realizing it. None of you idiots can say you havent had your own stupidity moments let alone when you were 15 so blow it."
Indeed - but I wasn't so much of a "moron" or an "idiot" to not realise when it was my own stupid fault.
girl falls into manhole
Gee, how would she feel if she had walked out in front of a transit bus and become a permanet hood ornament ? as previous note said "the gene pool would have been cleaner". Any lawyer who takes this as a case should be put to the only good use for lawyers..........target practice. And people wonder and complain about insurance costing so much. Please sterilize this kid before it breeds and dumbs down things even more.
Dumb girl...
Take the dumb girls phone away before she hurts someone.
Leach of a mom wants to sue?
Both sides messed up
The workers should have brought the cones with them before they opened the manhole, rather than opening it and THEN leaving it to retrieve the cones.
But pedestrians need to watch where the heck they're going.
Both sides need to learn from this mistake.
Stupid stupid child
What if what if what if. What if it were a small child, well if it were, then the inattentive parent would be at fault, because cones are not stopping a toddler. We walk around all day through absolute death traps, some of us in a fog of self, not paying one iota to the surroundings.
If Australopithecus stopped in tall grass to scratch notes in the dirt every 5 seconds im pretty sure we wouldn't be here to debate this. I hope this girl learns a lesson from this and pays more attention, grows up and has kids who she teaches the same. its the only way some people learn.
Yes i know i have the walk sign, but that screaming engine in the distance sounds like it could be trouble- let me take a look around and see if i should blindly cross the street or not.
Listen u can sue all u want but in the severe cases where it involves death, they can always inscribe the Tombstone with " I had the right of way", or something along those lines. Maybe if we didn't have so many protective laws that we lean on all day to survive, and our environment was more dangerous- we would pay more attention to what was happening around us.
Totally agree!
Totally agree!
this is the sort of thing
this is the sort of thing that fully brings the light o fthe utter dumbing down of america. some ignorant idiot falls into a hole because she wasnt looking where she was going and her even more ignorant mother is going to sue. these are your typical american(t)s, blind + stupid, these people should all be thrown into a hole and then buried alive...
amazed that some of you are criticizing the victim
This was total negligence on the part of the city. They are lucky no one died, or that irreparable damage was not done. The city not caring about public safety is the only thing that is disgraceful.
I'm amazed that people blame the victim. Had it been a young kid who fell down and died, would you all say the same thing?
If the young kid would have
If the young kid would have died then the gene pool would be cleaner
WAKE UP, if she does not have the basic skills to travel down a sidewalk and avoid obstacles She should not be let out by herself.
IF and ONLY IF she was blind would I blame the city. and even then the blind pay attention to where they are going and use a cane. What excuse does she have??
Disgrace
This family is disgraceful. They are a good example of what is wrong with our country. I hope the judge sentences them to a year of cleaning sewers.
NY girl falls in manhole while texting . . . any wonder?
Like, there was no warning about a big, open hole . . .
LIKE there was a big open hole where someone should have
been paying attention, and I do not mean the DEP.
I wish all the vapid-texting-"whatever" generation would
fall down a hole as well, especially when they text while
behind the wheel of a car.
Two teens bested by one
Two teens bested by one manhole, what a good laugh this morning. What happened to be responsible for yourself? Something as simple as watching where you are going... For some it is a good thing that breathing is an unconscious action.
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