Con Edison should have done more to secure the area around a Midtown Manhattan manhole that a woman fell into, causing her death, her family said in a lawsuit filed this week.<\/p>\n
Donike Gocaj, 56, dropped into a manhole<\/a> near the intersection of East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue in May. She fell about 10 feet underground and died from scald burns, heat inhalation and blunt force trauma<\/a>, according to the medical examiner\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Gocaj\u2019s death shocked New Yorkers in its seeming randomness and brutality.<\/p>\n Her son, Armando Gocaj, and her domestic partner, Jashar \u201cJack\u201d Kameraj said in their lawsuit that the utility company disregarded her life by failing to safely cover the manhole. They said Con Edison knew its manhole covers could become dislodged and failed to properly seal the gap.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want answers. They want prevention,\u201d said Diana Carnemolla, an attorney representing Gocaj\u2019s family.<\/p>\n A Con Edison spokesperson said in a statement that the company extends its condolences to Gocaj\u2019s loved ones but cannot comment on specific allegations while the lawsuit is pending. In May, a spokesperson told Gothamist a \u201cmulti-axle truck\u201d had driven over the manhole and dislodged the cover about 12 minutes before Gocaj parked her car and fell inside.<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleges that Con Edison had received complaints about the condition of the manhole cover. But on May 18, when Gocaj plummeted underground, the manhole wasn\u2019t barricaded, and there were no cones, signs or other safeguards to keep people away, the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n Gocaj\u2019s partner was with her when she fell and heard her screaming, \u201cI\u2019m dying! I\u2019m dying!\u201d according to the civil complaint. Carnemolla said Kameraj and bystanders tried to create a \u201chuman chain\u201d to pull her out, without success. There was no way to climb down and get her, the attorney said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe knew she was dying for all that time, however long it was,\u201d Carnemolla said. \u201cShe was well aware of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Gocaj\u2019s loved ones are seeking an unspecific amount of money to compensate for her death and the effects of the loss. Kameraj is also seeking relief for the anguish of witnessing what happened and \u201cdesperately\u201d attempting to save his domestic partner.<\/p>\n \u201dThey do not want her suffering to be in vain,\u201d Carnemolla said. \u201cThey want to make certain that something is done, that Con Edison owns the responsibility to what happened and then makes change, so that no other family suffers like they’re suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Con Edison should have done more to secure the area around a Midtown Manhattan manhole that a woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-299392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299392","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=299392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}