New York woman dies after stepping out of car into open manhole

Family seeks answers after incident at uncovered maintenance hole near Cartier building late at night

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The family of a New York woman is struggling for answers after the 56-year-old fell to her death upon stepping out of her car and slipping down an open maintenance hole on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

The woman in question died on Monday night and was identified by family members as Donike Gocaj, from Briarcliff Manor, a commuter belt area north of New York City.

Police say she parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV at West 52nd and Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan just before 11.20pm. She had stepped out of the car and directly into the maintenance hole in front of the Cartier mansion.

Gocaj fell down about 10ft (3m), and steam caused her to go into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The New York television station, WABC, later reported that an autopsy established Gocaj died from both the fall as well as “scald burns with inhalation thermal injury” because of the steam often present in open maintenance holes.

The outlet also spoke to her Gocaj’s family members – they said they were saddened and shocked by her sudden death, which was ruled an accident.

The city’s electric utility provider, Con Edison, is investigating why the maintenance hole was left uncovered since no construction was going on nearby.

The maintenance hole cover was found about 15ft from the opening. Authorities are reportedly looking into the possibility that a truck ran over it and caused it to dislodge.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm that a member of the public has died after falling into an open manhole,” Con Edison said in a statement. “We are actively investigating how this occurred.

“Our thoughts are with the individual’s family, and safety remains our top priority.”

New York’s department of environmental protection, which is responsible for maintenance holes connected to the sewers, says it has received more than 700 service requests for missing covers during the year so far.

Injuries or deaths related to open maintenance holes are relatively rare. Nonetheless, open maintenance holes are an urban nightmare akin to being hit by falling masonry, scaffolding, an air conditioner, getting pushed on subway tracks, a lightning strike or other such event.

A 17-year-old college student was struck and killed by falling masonry in 1979 on Broadway near West 115th Street in New York City, one of the world’s most populated and visited places. That death prompted mandatory facade inspections and reshaped scaffolding requirements.

But maintenance holes remain an issue. In 2019, a man who was unhoused was found dead in such a hole in Manhattan two weeks after he fell into it.

A 2022 study then found that, from 2007 to 2017, 388 trauma patients fell into a maintenance hole nationally, or 20 to 49 a year. One percent of those died as a result, according to the study.