Donike Gocaj, the 56-year-old woman who fell into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan after stepping out of her car, died as a result of the intense heat inside the manhole beneath the streets and trauma from the fall, according to the city’s medical examiner.
An autopsy revealed Gocaj’s cause of death as a combination of scald burns with inhalational thermal injury and blunt force trauma of the torso, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said Wednesday.
The Briarcliff Manor resident had just parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV on E. 52nd St. near the corner of Fifth Ave. before stepping out of her vehicle around 11:20 p.m. and into the open manhole a moment later, cops said.
Carlton Wood, 36, was on his way to work when he saw Gocaj fall.
“It was like she disappeared,” said Wood. “I saw her get out of her car, I seen her take a step forward, and then I didn’t see her anymore.”
Gocaj cried out from within the hole as passersby tried to save her.
“I’m dying,” she said, over and over from inside the hole, Wood recalled.
She fell about 10 feet, police said. Firefighters quickly removed her and EMS rushed her to Cornell Weill Medical Center, where she died, police said.
Wood said it wasn’t until after firefighters emerged from the manhole with Gocaj that he realized the intense heat she was subjected to.
“(Firefighters) put on masks to go down there, and when they came back up, when they took their gear off, how much they were sweating, it just seemed like it was taxing just to go down into that hole,” said Wood.
“Initially, I thought maybe she had just broke her leg, and I was thinking she was going to be fine, they were going to come pull her out of there,” said Wood. “I didn’t understand in that moment how hot it was down there. “
Con Edison said in a statement that it was still investigating, but that it appears a heavy truck rolling over the manhole cover may have dislodged it.
“We 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,” a spokesperson for the utility said. “Approximately 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.”
Gocaj worked for United Building Maintenance, which oversees janitorial work for Chase branches.
“She was a very good woman,” Sam Muhammed, a neighbor of Gocaj’s, told the Daily News. “I can’t believe it. She lived here, but she had another home, too. I just talked to her son, and he can’t speak about his mother,” he said, indicating the son was too devastated to talk.
Visitors to Midtown were stunned that a manhole could be open in one of the city’s most heavily traveled areas. The manhole was located outside the Cartier store, officials said.
“I never seen a manhole by itself open,” said Alex, a union carpenter for more than 25 years. “Usually, it’s well protected and covered up. Every time I see them, they’re always guarded. Usually they are marked out and covered up, and there would be cones,”
“Someone didn’t do their job. You can’t leave the manhole open,” added Steven George, a local IT director. “You can’t open (a manhole), it’s heavy. You need a metal rod to open the manhole up.”
Con Edison covered the hole as they continued the probe how the hole was left open and unprotected.
