MIDTOWN MANHATTAN — A 56-year-old woman died late Monday night after falling approximately 10 feet into an open Con Edison maintenance hole on Fifth Avenue near East 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. Donika Gocaj, of Briarcliff Manor, New York, had parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV adjacent to the maintenance hole and fell in after exiting the vehicle.

The New York Police Department responded to a 911 call at around 11:19 p.m. and found Gocaj unconscious and unresponsive at the bottom of the open manhole at East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Responders pulled her out and rushed her to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The maintenance hole cover was found approximately 15 feet from the opening. It was not immediately clear why the maintenance hole was not covered. Burn sheets were still on the ground at the scene the following morning.

Con Edison said it was investigating the accident. "We are deeply saddened to confirm that a member of the public has died after falling into an open manhole," a spokesperson for the utility said. "Our thoughts are with the individual's family, and safety remains our top priority."

A construction worker at the scene questioned how the opening had been left exposed. "It should have never happened. They should have covered it back up or put something around it. Or if it wasn't left open, how did it get off? That's the question right there. Ten feet is not too deep. Since it's ConEd, she might have hit some live wires and got electrocuted, I don't know," the worker said.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has received more than 700 service requests for missing maintenance hole covers so far this year. In 2019, a man experiencing homelessness was found dead in a maintenance hole in Manhattan two weeks after he fell into it. A 2022 study found that, nationally from 2007 to 2017, 388 trauma patients fell into maintenance holes, averaging 20 to 49 per year, and one percent of those patients died.