It's dangerous if it's steaming hot, and you touch it. It's also dangerous if it falls on your head.
Posted on 07/22/2005 9:04:22 AM PDT by Rakkasan1
A WOMAN WHO was branded with part of Con Edison's logo after falling onto a burning hot Manhattan manhole cover is suing the utility. A lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses Con Ed of allowing the manhole cover at E. 13th St. and Second Ave., to become excessively hot through a buildup of steam under it.
Elizabeth Wallenberg, 27, suffered "excruciating pain, disability and grotesque cosmetic disfigurement," according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
The fall left Wallenberg with a "C" and "O" and part of the manhole grid burned onto her back, just above the buttocks, and with burns on her arm.
"It literally looked like a brand that had been applied by someone," said her attorney, Ronald Berman.
He said the insignia has since faded, and outline of the manhole grid has blurred.
But the incident will leave her with discolored skin on her back and arm for the rest of her life, he added. "There is nothing the doctors can do," Berman said.
Wallenberg, who was skateboarding when she fell, is now a factory worker in Portland, Ore., Berman said.
A Con Ed spokesman declined comment.Helen Peterson
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Boston Globes article here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1448296/posts
I suppose photos are out of the question.
What is a manole cover? Is it dangerous?
Probably in illegal activity.
She must be either very hefty or frighteningly thin if she managed to burn the small of her back on a completely flat surface.
This is just too good -- branded!
I saw this on New York FOX news.
She FELL OFF A SKATEBOARD. Two thoughts:
Why was she riding a skateboard on the street?
And, people pay good money to have designs like that put on their butts.
Okay, regardless if this was an illegal activity or not, there is no reason a manhole cover in the middle of the street should be SO hot that it seared her skin and branded her.
What if a kid's ball had rolled into the street and the kid went to pick it up and the same thing happened? Would you still be blaming the person injured?
something they have a shortage of in EuroFrisco?
I'd heard stories in the past about how manhole covers in NYC would fly several feet into the air when gas built up in the sewers exploded, but I'd never heard of them branding anyone. The ones down here in Florida do get awfully hot just from sitting in the sun, though. I've picked up my share of them.
It's dangerous if it's steaming hot, and you touch it. It's also dangerous if it falls on your head.
Why is a manhole cover round?
Why is a manhole cover round?
Oh, it's supposed to be manhole cover. I see.
A hot manhole cover is only part of this utility's problems. Every year there are a number of cases in which people and/or their pets are injured or even killed by errant electrical currents from Con Edison electrical hardware underneath the sidewalks in New York City.
It's round so it won't fall into the hole by accident, or on prurpose - no matter how hard anyone tries. Other shapes can be turned to fit into a hole, but a circle can't.
Don't ask me how I know this. It's the Ed Norton in me.
If life was a Silver Age Marvel Comic, the city would have a new villain on its hands!!!!
If it were any other shape, it could potentially be lifted out of place, rotated on its edge, and dropped into the hole.
A circular cover by definition can't fit into the hole it covers.
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