{"id":298823,"date":"2026-07-17T17:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298823\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:48:16","slug":"family-sues-con-ed-over-manhole-death-in-midtown-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298823\/","title":{"rendered":"Family sues Con Ed over manhole death in Midtown Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a Westchester grandmother who died after falling into an open manhole on a midtown Manhattan street<\/a> is suing Con Edison, claiming that the manhole cover was \u201cinadequately sealed,\u201d court documents reveal.<\/p>\n

Donike Gocaj\u2019s relatives claim Con Edison knew the manhole cover on E. 52nd St. near Fifth Ave. could become dislodged and \u201creceived prior complaints\u201d regarding the \u201cunsecured, unfastened, defective\u201d manhole cover on the block, according to the wrongful death suit.<\/p>\n

Gocaj\u2019s domestic partner, Jashar Kameraj, saw her fall into the manhole<\/a> and says he suffered burns and other injuries as he tried to pull her out. He is also suing for damages, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old grandmother, a resident of Briarcliff Manor in Westchester, had just parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV on the block before stepping out of her vehicle around 11:20 p.m. on May 18 and fell into the open manhole a moment later, cops said.<\/p>\n

\"DonikeDonike Gocaj died after falling down an open manhole cover on E. 52nd St. near the corner of Fifth Ave. in Manhattan on Monday, May 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Kameraj \u201cdesperately attempted to rescue\u201d Gocaj by reaching into the manhole and trying to pull her out and \u201cwas caused to sustain serious, permanent, and painful personal injuries,\u201d including burns and \u201cinhalation thermal injuries\u201d from breathing in hot steam inside the manhole.<\/p>\n

An autopsy revealed Gocaj\u2019s cause of death as a combination of scald burns with inhalational thermal injury<\/a>\u00a0and blunt force trauma of the torso.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like she disappeared,\u201d said Carlton Wood, 36, who saw Gocaj fall into the open manhole. \u201cI saw her get out of her car, I seen her take a step forward, and then I didn\u2019t see her anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gocaj cried out from within the hole as passersby tried to save her, he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m dying,\u201d she said, over and over from inside the hole, Wood recalled.<\/p>\n

\"DonikeDonike Gocaj died after falling into a manhole (circled) in Manhattan on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Nicholas Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The grandmother fell about 10 feet, police said. Firefighters quickly removed her and EMS rushed her to Cornell Weill Medical Center, where she died, police said.<\/p>\n

Con Edison claimed at the time that the manhole cover had been dislodged by a heavy truck that had rolled over it a few minutes earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reviewed video footage from the area which suggests that the cover was dislodged after a multi-axle truck turning onto 52nd Street from 5th Avenue drove over it,\u201d a spokesperson for the utility said. \u201cApproximately 12 minutes later, the person involved in the incident parked her car nearby. We are reviewing the details, and while this is a rare occurrence, manhole covers can get displaced by heavy vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court states that the freak accident was caused by the \u201cgrossly negligent\u201d and \u201creckless\u201d actions of Con Edison, which they claim \u201callowed the (manhole) to be and remain open, uncovered, unguarded, unbarricaded and unprotected\u201d and caused the \u201csevere, horrifying, and catastrophic injuries\u201d Gocaj suffered.<\/p>\n

\"ConA Con Edison manhole cover is seen in Manhattan on May 19, 2026. (Rose Abuin \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The family also claims Con Edison failed to replace and secure the manhole cover in a timely fashion, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The utility, the lawsuit states, \u201cshould have known that dislodged and displaced manhole covers presented a recurring and foreseeable danger to pedestrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Con Edison spokeswoman said the utility was reviewing the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe extend our condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased,\u201d the spokeswoman said. \u201cBecause the matter is pending litigation, we cannot comment on specific allegations or legal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The utility will \u201crespond through the appropriate legal process,\u201d the spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\"DonikeDonike Gocaj died after falling down an open manhole cover on E. 52nd St. near the corner of Fifth Ave. in Manhattan on Monday, May 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Between Jan. 1 and the time Gocaj died, the city received 717 complaints via its 311 system for \u201cmissing\u201d or \u201cdefective\u201d manhole covers, a steep jump from 381 complaints in the same time period last year, according to NYC Open Data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aside from the covers maintained by the city\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection, there are thousands more belonging to Con Edison, National Grid, Verizon and AT&T, among others.<\/p>\n

The DEP, which maintains approximately 400,000 manholes throughout the city, said the uptick in complaints, \u201cmight be the result of manhole covers being dislodged because of snow plows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a Westchester grandmother who died after falling into an open manhole on a midtown Manhattan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[262,263,266,85,267,75,84,83,9,24,264,12,63,261,265],"class_list":["post-298823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}