It was only a matter of time...teen falls into manhole while texting

Ouch! And I LOLd. I am a bad person.

Educate me.

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by: BethCA66 @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:11:16 AM CDT

This sounds like something out of Looney Toons.

I'm glad she wasn't too badly hurt though.

Fetch my pearls, I need to clutch them!

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by: RainbowPhoenix @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:14:16 AM CDT

This is the kind of dumbass move I'd make

But I'd probably break a hip.

Good thing the young bounce!

Educate me.

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by: BethCA66 @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:20:09 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

great! I almost wet myself at my desk

One question, though:  was the mobile device ok?

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by: greatwhitebear @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:24:40 AM CDT

No info on cones

There very well could have been cones placed, the article does not say one way or the other.  I would be curious to see if this develops further if there were cones and what liability that leaves the city.  But don't large Cities like Staten Island usually use those cage type things that surround the hole?    

The trollish sounding blogger formerly known as BURNSEY

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by: R.K. Wright @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:29:15 AM CDT

Only a matter of time indeed

Last weekend we were driving home from a friend's around midnight, when we noticed a car driving slowly in the middle lane and weaving a little.  I said, "I'm not sure what's going on with that driver, but I'm going to pass them and get out of their way."  As we passed the car, my partner looked over and said, "She's texting!"  Yes, on the freeway at midnight, in the middle lane.  What an idiot!

And don't get me started on people who have let their mobile devices erase any manners they once had, paying more attention to an iphone than to the person standing in front of them.

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by: JosephineTx @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:31:58 AM CDT

If she was so busy texting

That she didn't notice the manhole, why does anyone think she'd notice an orange cone?

Or, for that matter, a brick wall, a train speeding toward her or a car about to run her over!

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by: Phil @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:48:13 AM CDT

Haha! My kid asked the same question, but if there were some sort of barricade around the hole

she might have kicked it, her friend might have seen it, or, it might have impeded her progress so that her poor self didn't end up in the city's bowels. Heh.

Educate me.

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by: BethCA66 @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 11:55:34 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I could see someone missing an open manhole but seeing cones

I only avoided an accident the other day by kicking a vault cover, which caused me to look up from the academic paper I was reading a meter or so before I would have plunged into the open cable vault it normally covers. As in the story above, there were no cones, cages, barriers, or warnings of any kind.

Usually I rely on peripheral vision and sound cues to tell me when I am about to run into a power pole or another pedestrian or there is a car backing out of a driveway or something. It generally works: I notice cones, and even the short, black signs my local funeral parlor puts up to secure street parking. But if it wasn’t for the able crew putting the vault lid down on the side of the hole I approach from rather than the other, I’d have gone right in.

Okay, I am taking a risk walking while reading. But I will point out that reading and texting are not the only distractions people have while walking: people are talking to each other, talking on cell phones, running to make the walk sign at the next corner, checking out that <x>’s nice <y> (insert as appropriate), thinking about dinner/relationship problems/politics/work problems, etc. Barriers really should be mandatory.

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by: pgraydon @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 12:18:13 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

OMG

I really did try very hard to not laugh at this.

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by: Jake @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 12:07:29 PM CDT

Can you hear me now?

How was the reception in the sewer? Depending on the answer, this fellow's service provider might have the makings of a funny ad campaign.

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by: Pollyanna @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 12:37:56 PM CDT

Oops, not a "fellow."

I should have gone with "teen."

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by: Pollyanna @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 12:40:36 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

No F@#$%^& sympathy at all

We used to run if someone approached us talking to themselves. We are subject to tirades by cell phone users walking and it is acceptable. Now we have to warn people walking down the street to look where they are going. No way. The world does not revolve around you.  

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by: Robert M @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 13:06:47 PM CDT

Ah, but there is a duty to warn about hidden deathtraps on private property. I imagine the duty is greater on public property.

I'm not saying walking along without being aware of your surroundings is smart, but you can't have an open hole in the street without some sort of barricade, be it tape or cones or something, to prevent people from falling in.

Suppose a blind person's cane missed the manhole. There's a whole parade of horribles to imagine.

Educate me.

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by: BethCA66 @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 14:04:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Open manholes as a weapon of war!

When the Nazis occupied France in the 1940's, a pasttime of some local teens was to remove manhole covers in areas close to bars & restaurants frequented by German soldiers.

Since the blackout was obligatory, it was most frequently done on moonless or overcast nights.  The kids knew they scored a "hit" when they heard a loud grunt, followed by swearing in German.  

I imagine the victim had a pretty aroma about him afterwards too, thus making him popular with his fellow soldiers upon return to the barracks.

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by: Phil @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 15:14:05 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Heh. Interesting. People are enterprising and creative.

Educate me.

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by: BethCA66 @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 21:25:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Begging the question is not what most people think

http://begthequestion.info/

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

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by: Lev Raphael @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 15:24:05 PM CDT

That battle has already been lost

The (mis)use of this phase where one means “raise the question” is widespread enough to have made it into the dictionary. To quote my system’s built-in dictionary:

beg the question 1 (of a fact or action) raise a question or point that has not been dealt with; invite an obvious question. 2 avoid the question; evade the issue. 3 assume the truth of an argument or proposition to be proved, without arguing it.

In the usage section, it notes:

Over the last 100 years or so another, more general use has arisen: ‘invite an obvious question,’ as in : some definitions of mental illness beg the question of what constitutes normal behavior. [This] newer meaning [is] widely accepted in modern standard English, although [it has] been criticized as being misunderstandings of the Latin rhetorical term.

Language changes, even if not everyone likes the changes.

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by: pgraydon @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 17:03:44 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I guess it's all relative...

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by: Pollyanna @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 15:27:46 PM CDT

anecdote

when I fell into a manhole, it went like this;  'Huh, whats that over there in the road? it looks like..' FALL 'a manhole cover.'

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by: maevele @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 15:38:25 PM CDT

She was on Staten Island AND fell down a sewer?!

How redundant can life get?

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.  -Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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by: QScribe @ Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 15:47:00 PM CDT