NYC Woman Dies After Stepping Out of Her Car Into an Open Manhole

Donike Gocaj did everything right on Monday night. She drove into Midtown Manhattan, found a spot to park on Fifth Avenue, and stepped out of her Mercedes-Benz SUV. One step was all it took. The 56-year-old grandmother from Briarcliff Manor, New York, dropped 10 feet into an uncovered manhole and never came home.

She was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. And now, her family, the city, and millions of New Yorkers who walk these same streets every day are asking a question that should have a simple answer: Why was that manhole open?

What Happened on Fifth Avenue

It was just before 11:20 p.m. on Monday, May 18, 2026. Gocaj parked her SUV at the corner of West 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, right in front of the Cartier Mansion. The spot looked normal. There were no cones. No warning signs. No barriers. Nothing to suggest that the ground next to her driver's side door was missing.

She opened her door, stepped out, and vanished. A witness named Carlton Wood was heading to work when he saw the whole thing. "I saw a woman stepping out of her car, and as soon as she stepped out, it's like she took one step forward and just disappeared," Wood told reporters.

The manhole was roughly 10 feet deep and steaming at the time. According to police sources, the steam caused Gocaj to go into cardiac arrest after she fell. First responders arrived within minutes, but it took around 20 minutes to get her out of the hole. Wood said she was screaming "I'm dying" over and over again.

Wood made a point that stuck with a lot of people. "She wasn't distracted, she didn't walk onto a construction site. I mean, she parked her car, stepped out of her car and dropped right into the manhole."

How the Manhole Ended Up Open

Con Edison, the utility company that owns and maintains the manhole, reviewed video footage from the area. According to their statement, the cover was dislodged by a multi-axle truck that turned onto 52nd Street from Fifth Avenue. Roughly 12 minutes later, Gocaj parked her car nearby.

Twelve minutes. That's how long the manhole sat open on one of the busiest corridors in Manhattan with absolutely nothing marking it as a danger. No barricade went up. No alert was triggered. No one noticed. The manhole cover was later found about 15 feet away from the open hole, according to sources who spoke with ABC News.

Con Edison said in their statement that "while this is a rare occurrence, manhole covers can get displaced by heavy vehicles." They added that their thoughts remain with the family and that safety is their top priority. A source within City Hall confirmed that Con Edison had an open permit to conduct work on the block at the time, and that manhole coverings are the responsibility of the utility company.

There was no active construction happening at the time of the incident. No workers were present. No crew was on site. The cover got knocked loose by a truck, and nobody knew about it until a woman fell to her death.

Who Was Donike Gocaj

Gocaj was 56 years old. She lived in a home in Briarcliff Manor, a quiet town in Westchester County about 30 miles north of the city. Family members identified her on Tuesday and described her as a loving mother to a son and daughter and a devoted grandmother to two grandchildren.

On her Facebook page, Gocaj (who also spelled her first name as Donika) regularly posted about family milestones. Birthdays, baby showers, weddings, first communions. She traveled as far as Australia to visit loved ones. She was, by every account, deeply connected to the people around her.

Her family visited the scene Tuesday morning. They were seen hugging and consoling each other on the sidewalk, trying to make sense of how something like this could happen. Her daughter-in-law spoke to reporters and confirmed what everyone already suspected: there were no cones, no warning signs, and no barriers around the open manhole.

The Investigation So Far

Police said no criminality is suspected and no arrests have been made. They're treating Gocaj's death as an accident. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office has not yet released an official cause of death, though police sources pointed to the steam inside the manhole triggering cardiac arrest as the likely factor.

Con Edison said it is actively investigating how this occurred. Allan Drury, a spokesperson for the company, confirmed the investigation is ongoing. The company has reviewed video from the area and identified the truck that appears to have knocked the cover loose, but no further details about that vehicle have been released publicly.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office released a statement saying city agencies are working with Con Edison to support the emergency response and conduct a full investigation. "Every question must be asked and answered so that no New Yorker experiences a tragedy like this again," the mayor's office said.

A Standard Manhole Cover Weighs 250 to 300 Pounds

That's worth thinking about for a second. These covers are cast iron discs that weigh as much as a large refrigerator. They're designed specifically so that they don't move. The fact that a truck was able to pop one loose just by driving over it raises serious questions about the condition of that particular cover and whether it was seated properly before the truck rolled through.

According to OSHA standards, an open manhole must never be left unattended by the crew working on it. If a worker needs to step away, a secure, load-bearing temporary cover or a highly visible guardrail has to be in place. But this wasn't a work site. Nobody was working on this manhole. The cover just got knocked off by a passing truck, and no system existed to catch that before someone got hurt.

Pedestrians often have less than a second to react to a sudden opening in the ground, especially at night, especially in a busy area where your eyes are on other things. Gocaj wasn't even walking on a sidewalk. She was simply stepping out of her car.

Missing Manhole Covers in NYC Are Not Rare

According to the city's own 311 call data, the Department of Environmental Protection (which handles sewer-connected manholes, separate from Con Edison's) has fielded more than 700 service requests related to missing manhole covers so far in 2026. Between May 1 and May 17 alone, there were 62 complaints about missing manhole covers. None of those complaints were connected to the area where Gocaj fell, and some were duplicates, but the numbers paint a picture of a city where this kind of thing happens more often than most people realize.

Some of those complaints have been fixed. Some were unfounded. Some have incomplete information. Some are still listed as requiring further investigation. It's a patchwork system for a city that has tens of thousands of manholes spread across five boroughs, maintained by multiple different entities, each with their own inspection schedules and response times.

The Scene the Next Morning

By early Tuesday morning, the street had reopened. The manhole was covered again and cordoned off. Gocaj's Mercedes was still visible at the scene overnight, parked right next to the now-sealed hole. Video from reporters showed how close the manhole was to her driver's side door. It was maybe a foot or two away. There was literally nowhere else for her to step.

New Yorkers and tourists passing through the area on Tuesday told reporters that the incident had rattled them. Several said it had unlocked a fear they hadn't considered before. You think about a lot of things when you're walking around Manhattan. Traffic. Bikes. Other people. The ground disappearing beneath you isn't usually on the list.

What Happens Next

The investigation is still in its early stages. Con Edison is reviewing details. The medical examiner hasn't issued an official ruling. The mayor's office has pledged a full investigation involving multiple city agencies.

For Gocaj's family, none of that changes what happened on Monday night. A woman parked her car on a well-lit street in one of the most famous neighborhoods on the planet, opened her door, and fell into a hole that nobody knew was there. She was screaming for help. It took 20 minutes to pull her out. And she didn't survive.

The manhole cover was found 15 feet away. A truck knocked it loose 12 minutes before she arrived. And in those 12 minutes, on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, not a single person, camera, sensor, or system flagged that the ground was open. That's the part that's going to stay with people for a long time.