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Posted Sunday, July 12, 2009 by Noah Kravitz | ||||
15 year-old Alexa Longueira fell "four or five feet" into an open manhole on Victory Boulevard while attempting to send a text message, according to MSNBC. Crews were flushing out a sewer line and "had turned away briefly to grab some cones when the incident occurred," according to the Department of Environmental Protection - though perhaps a twitter alert would have done more to reach Longueira, who apparently had her head buried in her phone (sadly, we don't yet know what kind of cellie she was rocking at the time). The girl was checked out and released by Staten Island University Hospital, suffering some scrapes but nothing worse, according to reports.
The family has said they will sue the city, perhaps to recover one of the girl's sneakers, which is still down in the hole. Kim Longueira, the "victim's" mother, said that "it doesn't matter that her daughter was walking and texting" and that the manhole "was putrid." I'm very glad that the girl is okay. I also think the Mom should knock it off. Yes, the DEP should have blocked the open manhole cover off as soon as they opened it up, but come on ... if you walk into an open manhole because you're too busy writing a text to notice the hole in the sidewalk, I think you lose your right to sue. But, hey, I'm not a judge.
So a young girl shouldn't walk on a city sidewalk and text. What's next? It should be outlawed, right? Funny, I've probably had to walk around one of you texting zombies at one point or another. The crew was cleaning the sewer and failed to block-off the open manhole cover. If it was your daughter, sister, mother, etc. you'd be more than willing to call an scumbag attorney right out of the yellow pages, I bet.
I hope she doesn't get any money, but cases like this are usually cheaper for the city to settle in the end. That's just the way it is. I'm just surprised that I seem to be the only one who read this and thought, "damn, they should've blocked off the hole first." Just try to think how something as innocent as being distracted by a phone while walking can be reason for many of you to say she's an idiot, as though you could NEVER do something so stupid. I wouldn't bet my money on that.
I'll simply wish that your path remain away from open manhole covers, and elevator shafts, and broken escalators, and whatever else could cause you harm in this feckless world of urban blight. I only wish that you were secure enough to admit this could have happened to any of us. If the shoe were on the other foot, you just might be the sue-happy victim too.