A 56-year-old Westchester County woman fell to her death down an uncovered Con Edison manhole outside the Cartier store in Midtown Manhattan on Monday night, in a freak accident that has prompted an investigation by the utility into how the hole was left exposed on one of the busiest stretches of Fifth Avenue.

Donika Gocaj, of Briarcliff Manor, stepped out of her parked Mercedes-Benz SUV at around 11:20 p.m. near the corner of East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, beside the Cartier and Nike stores, and tumbled roughly 10 feet into the open utility hole, police said. First responders arrived to find her unconscious and unresponsive at the bottom of the shaft.

Emergency crews pulled Ms. Gocaj from the hole and rushed her to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead from her injuries.

Con Edison said it is investigating why the manhole was uncovered. The utility did not immediately disclose whether crews had been working at the site earlier in the evening or whether the cover had been displaced through some other means.

Family members told Eyewitness News they were searching for answers in the hours after the accident. Ms. Gocaj was a mother and grandmother whose son was married in Cancún, Mexico, last July. Her daughter is a co-founder of SISTERWOULD, a hair-care company designed for visually impaired users; the firm’s website describes its founders as “daughters of visually impaired mothers.”

 

The intersection where Ms. Gocaj died is among the most heavily trafficked retail corridors in New York City, anchored by Cartier, Nike and other flagship stores and lined with pedestrians and high-end vehicles through the late evening hours. The Midtown South Precinct has not announced any criminality in connection with the fall, and the death was being treated as an accident pending the medical examiner’s review.

Open or improperly secured manholes have killed pedestrians in New York before, though such fatalities are rare. The city and Con Edison have both faced lawsuits in past incidents involving missing or dislodged covers, and Department of Transportation rules require utility crews to barricade and supervise any open shaft on a public street.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)