Posted on 05/21/2026 3:50:28 PM PDT by xxqqzz
Her death triggered fears for New Yorkers and visitors alike, and now it's been revealed just how the woman who fell into an open manhole in midtown Manhattan died.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Donike Gocaj parked her SUV on the side of 52nd Street near Fifth Avenue, out front of the Cartier store. The 56-year-old got out of her vehicle, closed the door -- and fell into an uncovered 10-foot-deep manhole.
Gocaj died from her injuries in what Con Edison said was a freak accident. The utility company said surveillance footage suggests a large truck dislodged a manhole cover by driving over it — a rare event, but something Con Ed acknowledged does happen.
While it's not known just how a truck can dislodge a manhole cover, what is known is just how died. The city's medical examiner ruled the death an accident, and determined she died as a result of scald burns with inhalational thermal injury, along with blunt force injury to her chest.
The manhole didn't appear to be uncovered for long. Con Ed said that the surveillance video shows Gocaj parking her car near the manhole about 12 minutes after a multi-axle truck appears to dislodge the cover.
A source within City Hall said Con Edison had an open permit to conduct work on the block at the time of the deadly incident. The utility company is responsible for manhole coverings, the source said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnewyork.com ...
She was heard screaming “IM DYING IM DYING” just horrible what a horrible horrible way to go
“Woman in freak NYC manhole accident didn’t die from fall itself, medical examiner says”. You don’t read about this kind of stuff every day.
I never park near one I’m afraid I might drop my car keys down it but this
Poor woman. I hope she did not suffer long.
“While it’s not known just how a truck can dislodge a manhole cover”
It tiddlywinks.
Horrible story. Accidents happen, but damn, this one sounds particularly brutal.
I didn’t know there was scaling water and steam in a manhole. I’ve never seen that before, is it a New York thing?
Yup, I've seen it happen more than once. The ones I saw didn't throw the covers away from the manhole leaving it completely uncovered, but they landed crookedly, partly over the hole.
A terrible story. I’ve been scalded by steam, not very badly but it was a really painful type of burn.
Two things seem odd about this incident. First, how a truck could completely dislodge a manhole cover if the cover was properly placed entirely within the supporting ring. Many, many trucks drive over manhole covers every day without shifting the covers at all. Perhaps someone stole the manhole cover, but then the surveillance video should have shown that. Second, I’d think that a lethal amount of steam would send up a pretty big cloud out of the open manhole cover.
I think there’s more to this story than we know yet.
I could see that happening if the cover was not quite completely seated in the rim of the manhole, but not if it’s all the way down flush with the street surface. Might the Con Edison work crew have left it just a little out of place?
There was security footage showing the truck dislodged it.
There are accidents and there is negligence.
They do make locking covers, and there is no routine inspection process for manhole covers in New York City.
Someone crunched the numbers, determined the risk didn't justify the cost, and now a woman is dead.
They didn’t come right out and say that’s what happened, only that the footage “suggests” it, and that the truck “appears to” dislodge the cover. Anyway, I’m not saying that that isn’t what happened, only that I cannot see how a truck could move a properly seated manhole cover by driving over it. If someone can explain how it could work unless the cover was already at least slightly out of place, I’d be grateful.
I’ve lifted a lot of manhole covers, they don’t normally bolt them, the weight and design keeps them in place.
I wonder if NYC has some bad road/manhole maintenance.
Very likely. It's the same way corporate medical care / hospital system medical care is administrated.
Manhole covers are huge and extremely heavy, they don’t bounce around like little water covers and people like plumbers look into manholes fairly often.
Go out and try to remove a manhole cover on your street, it is a challenge.
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