Texting teen falls into open manhole

OMG MANHOOOOOOOLE!

New York's WCBS puts it in a way that just can't be better expressed: "It was an accident waiting to happen."

15-year-old Alexa Longueira was wandering along the street in Staten Island last week, obliviously tapping text messages into her phone as she walked. Distracted by her phone, she failed to notice the open manhole in her path, and plunged into it, taking an impromptu bath of raw sewage along with receiving moderate injuries. Longueira called the dive "really gross... shocking and scary."

It's not all Longueira's fault. The manhole shouldn't have been left uncovered and unattended, and no warning signs or hazard cones had been set up near the work site. A worker with New York's Department of Environmental Protection, who was preparing to flush the sewer, helped her out, and the department later issued a formal apology for the incident.

Nonetheless, observers are harshly divided over who's to blame here. The DEP is certainly at fault for failing to secure the manhole, but to what extent should the girl be held accountable for failure to be aware of her surroundings? If she'd stepped into traffic and been hit by a car, would her reaction (that is: anger and a potential lawsuit) be any different?

Detachment from one's environment due to electronic gadgetry is a growing problem -- and a hazardous one of that. The government is even trying to get involved, with multiple laws on the books across the country outlawing cell phone use and text messaging while operating a motor vehicle in the wake of serious accidents involving distracted drivers. One New York senator even tried to criminalize the use of handheld devices (including phones, music players, and game consoles) by pedestrians while they are crossing streets in major New York cities, due to concerns over the number of auto vs. pedestrian accidents.

Following a substantial outcry, that legislation appears never to have been formally introduced.

But did Kruger have a point?

Intriguing (to me, at least), is the nugget at the end of the story linked above that Longueira lost a shoe in the sewer... but since it isn't reported at lost, I'm guessing she appears to have managed to keep her grip on her phone during the ordeal. Hmmm.