Woman dies after falling into open manhole in Manhattan

NEW YORK — A 56-year-old woman died after falling into an open manhole when she stepped out of her vehicle in midtown Manhattan — one of New Yorkers’ greatest fears.

The victim, Donike Gocaj, of Briarcliff Manor in Westchester County, had parked her SUV at the corner of East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue late Monday, police said. When she got out, she plunged 10 feet into an uncovered utility hole in front of the Cartier Mansion.

Con Edison said in a statement Tuesday that it had reviewed surveillance footage that suggested the utility hole had been dislodged when a multi-axle truck drove over it while turning onto East 52nd Street from the avenue. Twelve minutes later, Gocaj parked her car nearby.

“We are reviewing the details, and while this is a rare occurrence, manhole covers can get displaced by heavy vehicles,” Anne Marie Corbalis, a spokesperson for Con Edison, said in a statement. “Our thoughts remain with her family, and safety remains our top priority.”

City officials said Con Edison had an open work permit on the block when Gocaj fell into the hole, although no work was underway at the time. Jeremy Edwards, a spokesperson for City Hall, said the city was working with the utility company to investigate what happened.

“Every question must be asked and answered so that no New Yorker experiences a tragedy like this again,” he said.

Relatives of Gocaj could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. Con Edison replaced the hole cover after the accident.

Carlton Wood, 36, was walking down East 52nd Street on his way to work at a nearby hotel when he saw Gocaj getting out of her car.

“She took a couple of steps and just vanished,” he said. “It happened so quickly.”

Wood, the fire safety director at the Lotte New York Palace hotel, said he rushed over when he heard her screaming over and over, “I’m dying.” It wasn’t until he approached that he saw the unmarked hole with its lid off to the side.

He looked down and saw Gocaj sitting in a puddle of water with her legs stretched in front of her. He stepped away to call 911 as people with flashlights came over in response to her screams.

One bystander tried to lower himself into the hole so that Gocaj could grab his legs, but the hole was too deep, Wood said. Another bystander brought a ladder that was too short, he added.

Police responded to a 911 call from the location at 11:19 p.m. and found Gocaj unconscious and unresponsive.

When emergency crews lifted her out about 20 minutes later, she was silent, motionless and covered in soot, Wood said.

“I was expecting there to be cheers when they pulled her out,” he said. “I thought there would be thumbs-up.”

Instead, he said, the scene turned somber as emergency medical workers performed chest compressions and wheeled her to an ambulance.

Paramedics took her to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

On Facebook, Gocaj, who also spelled her name as Donika, was a doting figure. She often posted special milestones with her family — birthdays, baby showers, weddings and first communions — whom she traveled as far as Australia to visit. Among those she left behind are a daughter, a son and two young grandsons.

Con Edison has hole covers over its vast underground network, which includes 285,000 maintenance holes, service boxes and vaults across New York City and its suburbs. Dozens of the covers went missing in 2012, in what officials suspected was a spate of thefts.

The hole that Gocaj fell into is used to pipe steam to the utility’s customers.

Police said there were no arrests on Tuesday in connection with Gocaj’s death. There were no passengers in her vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz, and she was alone when she fell, according to police.

The city medical examiner’s office said it was investigating what caused Gocaj’s death. A determination was not expected Tuesday, the office’s spokesperson said.

Missing hole covers are a common problem in New York City. The Department of Environmental Protection, which is responsible for maintenance holes connected to the sewer system, has fielded more than 700 service requests so far this year, according to the city’s 311 call data.

Gocaj’s death recalled that of a homeless man who was found dead in a maintenance hole in 2019 two weeks after he stumbled into it.

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Falling into an open maintenance hole is one of the many urban nightmares New Yorkers worry about, along with falling through grates on the street, getting pushed onto the subway tracks and getting hit by a falling air conditioner.

Last year, a woman died after a garbage truck crash caused scaffolding to collapse on her.

In 2020, a 33-year-old man fell into an underground vault of rats when the sidewalk collapsed beneath him, though he survived.

And in 2022, a maintenance hole explosion in Times Square sent hundreds of people running away in fear.

Wood, the witness, said he decided to speak up so that Gocaj’s family could know what happened and to quell online speculation that she was distracted before the fall.

“I just want her family to understand that this was a freak accident,” he said. “If she would have parked a few feet up, maybe none of this would have happened.”