Texting teen falls into open manhole

By Christopher Null Jul 12, 2009

OMG MANHOOOOOOOLE! New York's WCBS puts it in a way that just can't be better expressed: "It was an accident waiting to happen." 15-year-old Alexa Longueira was wandering along the street in Staten Island last week, obliviously tapping text messages into her phone as she walked. Distracted by her phone, she failed to notice the open manhole in her path, and plunged into it, taking an impromptu bath of raw sewage along with receiving moderate injuries. Longueira called the dive "really gross... shocking and scary." It's not all Longueira's fault. The manhole shouldn't have been left uncovered and unattended, and no warning signs or hazard cones had been set up near the work site. A worker with New York's Department of Environmental Protection, who was preparing to flush the sewer, helped her out, and the department later issued a formal apology for the incident. Nonetheless, observers are harshly divided over who's to blame here. The DEP is certainly at fault for failing to secure the manhole, but to what extent should the girl be held accountable for failure to be aware of her surroundings? If she'd stepped into traffic and been hit by a car, would her reaction (that is: anger and a potential lawsuit) be any different?

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