Newsflash: Texting more dangerous than Swine Flu
Jake Farr-Wharton 10 comments
In a serious game of “who’s dumber”, a 15-year-old girl from the USA has fallen into an open manhole cover while city road workers searched for traffic cones.
The girl, heretofore known as ‘dumbo-1’ was frantically texting her BFF, giving her phone keypad all of her attention, when she found the open, unmarked manhole and dropped around six meters to the murky, stinky, rat infested sewers below.
The city workers, heretofore known as ‘dumbo-2’ were nowhere to be seen though as they had only thought to mark or cordon off the open manhole after they had removed it. Instead of keeping one person at the manhole to ‘direct traffic’, THEY LEFT THE OPEN MANHOLE UNGUARDED!
Luckily though, only a complete idiot fell through the hole instead of a visually impaired person.
Dumbo-1’s parents, showing their true and vibrant opportunistic American heritage, are going to sue the city for negligence, though the girl will likely have to argue that her stupidity did not contribute to the fall. The poor, poor girl lost her shoe and scraped her back in the fall – the shoe was never recovered.
Honestly, the only thing that could have made this story better is if the girl fell into the waiting toothy embrace of an adult alligator… one can dream though.
Jim
Wednesday 15th July 2009 | 05:30 PMI certainly hope she doesn't prevail in court. People should be aware of their surroundings at all times. It could have been much worse, she should just be thankful she's still alive to further dilute the gene pool.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Thursday 16th July 2009 | 06:35 AM...in response to this comment by Kim OJ. Na, I think she'd still just end up climbing out of the hole... stupid ladders.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Thursday 16th July 2009 | 06:44 AM
...in response to this comment
by Jim.
Jim, she does have a case though. The city workers were neglegent and did create a hazard. As a tax payer and citizen of any city, you expect that the streets that surround you are going to be safe to walk on.
She absolutely failed to meet standard human levels of due dilligence and cohesion with her surroundings, but she is just a dumb kid, doing what dumb kids do. I don't know what they intend to sue for though, she wasn't seriously injured, she just got some scratches and lost her shoe... perhaps her shoe was made of diamond and was worth several million dollars.
Seriously though, she did not do through any severe pain and suffering (so sayeth the news report).
andrew
Thursday 16th July 2009 | 03:10 PMcould we see a movie made!!
Jake Farr-Wharton
Friday 17th July 2009 | 06:25 AM...in response to this comment by andrew. Actually, I'd like to see a recording of this chick disappearing down the sewer hole!
TVBIZ(BOB)
Monday 20th July 2009 | 08:35 AM
Even if the girl was not watching where she was walking there is no excuse for the manhole being left unattended!
If you are going to bag her then you need to bag everyone who listens to music while walking. Being unaware of the sounds around you can be just as lethal as not looking. Everyone seems to overlook that because everyone is guilty of stupidity at some point in time..............
Jake Farr-Wharton
Monday 20th July 2009 | 11:40 AM...in response to this comment by TVBIZ(BOB). I totally agree, it was absolutely neglegent of the city workers to remove the manhole cover and just walk away, but we each have to take some responsibility for our own actions.
...in response to this comment by Jake Farr-Wharton. Thing is, although I agree with the city with no providing enough security for the unguarded manhole, this story will give other dumbos the 'excuse' to be oblivious about their surroundings or where they're walking. Certainly, you do have to take responsibility for your own actions.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Tuesday 21st July 2009 | 09:19 AM...in response to this comment by Mario. I agree 100%
Kim OJ
Wednesday 15th July 2009 | 04:06 PMa perfect ending to the story might have been the city workers covering up the manhole again without realizing someone fell in.