Girl Falls in Open Manhole while Texting. Lawyers: City to Blame.
Another nail in the coffin of Common Sense.
So some dumb girl was texting while walking and fell into an open manhole cover. She's blaming the DEP for "failing to secure the area" and trying to get a lawsuit, all the while failing to realize how close she came to receiving a Darwin Award for removing herself from the gene pool. Damn that rule about having to kill or sterilize yourself in the process!
>Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking along Victory Boulevard near Travis Avenue on Staten Island Wednesday evening when she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness.
>she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness.
Poetry! Sheer poetry! What a great way to start an article on this subject!
>She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer.
>"Because of their careless mistake I got hurt."
Okay, so YOU were texting. YOU weren't looking where you were going. Yet somehow this is their fault? I've been to New York. I've seen how many people are walking around. Nobody else made the same idiot mistake you did. Out of all the people there, you seem to be the only one that needs a seeing eye dog stapled to your face.
>"Regardless of whether I'm texting or not if there was a cone there I'm going to see a big orange cone... I walk that sidewalk every day, I don't expect a big hole there."
You know, there's a reason that people look forwards while they walk: so they can see what's in front of them. You can sure as fuck bet that a caveman would have looked forward as he was walking. (inb4 Geico caveman references.) You know why? Because if a motherfucking sabertooth tiger were to jump out in front of Oog, he sure as hell better have been able to see him in time to lift his spear, or he'd have been having his dinner that night in Soviet Russia. ("Where tiger eats you!") Just because you don't have to worry about sabretooth tigers does not mean you shouldn't be looking forward while you walked.
When I was much younger, I used to play my Gameboy while walking. You know what made me realize I should stop? The fact that I couldn't see what was in front of me. Telephone posts, people, chairs, it didn't matter. I would either bump into it or come damn close to. On top of that, it makes you look like an awkward fuck, tuned out from the rest of the world. I'm convinced that the reason that doing the same thing with cell-phones is considered socially acceptable is because most of the world (at least the parts of the world that have even seen a cell-phone) doesn't know better, like a toddler who puts his hands down his pants in public.
If I receive a text message while I'm walking that I absofuckinglutely have to answer right away, I stop walking for a bit. Sure I waste precious seconds typing out the message (what with the miracle of T9 predictions and all), but I end up not setting myself up for a huge embarrassment like this.
>"It could have been an elderly person, a mother pushing a stroller. It could have been anyone."
Assuming they were looking forward, no.
Please nobody take this as me saying "omg evry1 who txts whil walkin iz dum an shuld diee," because that's not the point at all. I'm just baffled at this entire thing. The way that someone could so shamelessly play victim on this situation at a national scale while keeping a straight face and not cry themselves to sleep for being such a public failure, and furthermore actually get a judge to rule in their favor. Not saying a judge will or not in this case. Sillier cases have won, though.
Do they just give away frivolous cases like this to the plaintiff every now and then so when a judge rules in favor of Evil Billionaire Guy #3286, it doesn't look like they always go in favor of the big guys.
So some dumb girl was texting while walking and fell into an open manhole cover. She's blaming the DEP for "failing to secure the area" and trying to get a lawsuit, all the while failing to realize how close she came to receiving a Darwin Award for removing herself from the gene pool. Damn that rule about having to kill or sterilize yourself in the process!
>Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking along Victory Boulevard near Travis Avenue on Staten Island Wednesday evening when she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness.
>she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness.
Poetry! Sheer poetry! What a great way to start an article on this subject!
>She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer.
>"Because of their careless mistake I got hurt."
Okay, so YOU were texting. YOU weren't looking where you were going. Yet somehow this is their fault? I've been to New York. I've seen how many people are walking around. Nobody else made the same idiot mistake you did. Out of all the people there, you seem to be the only one that needs a seeing eye dog stapled to your face.
>"Regardless of whether I'm texting or not if there was a cone there I'm going to see a big orange cone... I walk that sidewalk every day, I don't expect a big hole there."
You know, there's a reason that people look forwards while they walk: so they can see what's in front of them. You can sure as fuck bet that a caveman would have looked forward as he was walking. (inb4 Geico caveman references.) You know why? Because if a motherfucking sabertooth tiger were to jump out in front of Oog, he sure as hell better have been able to see him in time to lift his spear, or he'd have been having his dinner that night in Soviet Russia. ("Where tiger eats you!") Just because you don't have to worry about sabretooth tigers does not mean you shouldn't be looking forward while you walked.
When I was much younger, I used to play my Gameboy while walking. You know what made me realize I should stop? The fact that I couldn't see what was in front of me. Telephone posts, people, chairs, it didn't matter. I would either bump into it or come damn close to. On top of that, it makes you look like an awkward fuck, tuned out from the rest of the world. I'm convinced that the reason that doing the same thing with cell-phones is considered socially acceptable is because most of the world (at least the parts of the world that have even seen a cell-phone) doesn't know better, like a toddler who puts his hands down his pants in public.
If I receive a text message while I'm walking that I absofuckinglutely have to answer right away, I stop walking for a bit. Sure I waste precious seconds typing out the message (what with the miracle of T9 predictions and all), but I end up not setting myself up for a huge embarrassment like this.
>"It could have been an elderly person, a mother pushing a stroller. It could have been anyone."
Assuming they were looking forward, no.
Please nobody take this as me saying "omg evry1 who txts whil walkin iz dum an shuld diee," because that's not the point at all. I'm just baffled at this entire thing. The way that someone could so shamelessly play victim on this situation at a national scale while keeping a straight face and not cry themselves to sleep for being such a public failure, and furthermore actually get a judge to rule in their favor. Not saying a judge will or not in this case. Sillier cases have won, though.
Do they just give away frivolous cases like this to the plaintiff every now and then so when a judge rules in favor of Evil Billionaire Guy #3286, it doesn't look like they always go in favor of the big guys.