A 56-year-old woman fell into an open maintenance hole on a busy New York City street and died, police and utility officials said as they investigated how it could have happened.

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 and getting pushed onto the subway tracks.

A 56-year-old woman died after falling into an open maintenance hole on a busy Midtown Manhattan street, New York police and utility officials said on Tuesday, as authorities investigated how the incident…