Oh, the poor dear. Sometimes I wonder how much richer I would be if I were an idiot, but alas. I can't wait for my generation to take over the world! No responsibility is pretty liberating, innit?

The company should get a fine and cover the cost of her medical bills..... BUT IN NOOOOO WAY should she get a big fat pay day out of this! She's a dope! Oy'Vey!

Of course she will get a big check out of it.  It is no different than the idiot woman who sued McD's over the hot coffee and won. 

When the lawsuit is over the city should come in and rip out out the sidewalk under the pretense of remodeling and then never finish it. 

If the cones were there, she would have tripped over them and fallen face-first into the sewer.  These neglectful workers saved the city more $$$ by not marking the hole.   

This video has stressed me out, just thinking about that poor girl who lost a shoe, and has been so traumatized... 

 Who originally posted this video anyway???   I plan on suing them for subjecting me to this story that has now traumatized ME!

This girl and her mother are morons.  Does it suck that she fell in?  Yeah, but it was her own fault for not paying attention to where she was going.  In no way does she deserve any money out of this.

This is where it becomes impossible for me to be a news anchor, because I don't know how to lie well enough to pretend it's not her fault.  I especially like, "Alexa felt the earth move under her."  No, she felt herself step into an open manhole.  

I don't text while I walk, but I don't stare at the ground the whole time either.  Sometimes I look up to plan future steps.  Sometimes I just look at the trees or the sky.  When I'm walking on a sidewalk that doesn't ordinarily have a big, gaping hole in it, particularly if it's a sidewalk I usually use, I doubt I would notice a missing manhole cover until it was too late.  In my opinion there is a HUGE difference between spilling hot coffee on yourself, knowing it's hot, and stepping in a hole where a sidewalk used to be.

@ProvokingThought -  It's just like the video you posted a few weeks ago, with the different forms of government; anarchy created what was almost the least free society. No different with responsibilty-- abolition of blame doesn't equal abolition of wrong or bad things. Crap still happens.

Texting - it kills people

@scrambledmegzntoast@hardestlevel - they would probably say the 80 year old lady should not be allowed out on the sidewalk without a registered permit Megan.

 If there was a real display of stupid it was mom. Obvious mom understood the city was at the site at the time of the accident with a truck less than 15 feet away from the manhole and we enroute to and from to get cones. This means the cover wasnt just taken off and abandoned there was a crew within 15 feet with a city truck. Mom is obviously not citing her daughters need to be cognizant of ther surroundings which to me makes her the kind of mother who is not raising her daughter to be aware or take responsibility for her own actions. The daughter is obviously a product of her mother if you had to look for a underlying motive.

The age part comes in on texting because it would be mainly younger people texting and walking. I have a larger problem with people texting while they drive and almost got hit again today by a driver on their cell phone who missed me, then ran a red light . How the other drive missed him is beyond me.

Megan, in the school district we live we had the option of going directly into first grade if you had the aptitude, The downside was being 16 starting my senior year, turning 17 in January. Many viewed that as lucky, I didnt. When I graduated I wanted to take a year off of school, but I was not old enough (though as far as IQ and ability I was more than capable) to get a good paying job (which had 18 year old restriction). This was also at the time when we had won the right to drink at 18 so I was able to get into bars but not legally. I went into the military instead, taking my final exams and getting on the plane...said screw graduation...I had moved to Chicago in HS and didnt care about the whole alma mater routine.

I am not sure of NY's insurance codes but here in PA if the city damages your property, the city pays the part the insurance company does not. We see it most frequently with snow removal incidents where a snow plow will hit a car; your insurance company pays it part and the city/state pays the deductable part. If you are injured the city /state would pay the part that you are responsible for. Many times the insurance companies end up have to subrogate (under the common law theory of equitable subrogation) to get the cities/state to pay their share and getting a attorney involved is rarely worth it unless you have a life long injury. I am not sure if this is unique to a commonwealth or not.

@Jillycarmel - I am most familiar with the insurance laws in a commonwealth, I would have to search Lexis for case law on government liability for the actions of a union employee in a neglience case where the employees were in the immediate proximity of the worksite (10-15 feet). This reminds me of people who were all wrapped up into the music with their walkman and losing awareness of their surrounding or talking to a friend and walking into a pole.

@mejicojohn - you jogged  something John ~after my son was born my first wife and I moved into our first single family residence in a nice development.  Our first water bill was really high for the time (my parents lived in the same development, our house was smaller and our bill 5x theirs. I called the landlord and she gave us a rent credit figuring it must have been left from the prior tenant. our meters were in a box  just off the street as was the shut off. the next quarter it was still high and I called the city, they said I must have a leaky faucet or a running toilet or being using a lot of water. My wife was a sahm and I was like what is she doing?  One morning as I was leaving for work, I backed out of the drive way and I thought when I was leaving I heard a noise. the street was a semi-circle so I couldnt see the road. I get a call from my wife after I got to work that the street had collapsed right in front of our driveway. They ended up having to dig up the line on both sides of the meter , tear up the driveway to the home, yada, yada, yada.

The city and our landlord ended up in a legal fight as they wanted to bill her for the leak and the damage even though we had called and reported something had to be wrong (plus the water pressure was lower). I forget how they worked it but they put a 5/8ths hose into our system while it being fixed and it took them a long time until the street was finally fixed and we could use our driveway again