Someone Fell Down a Manhole Today and a Look at Some Other New York Urban Legends That Have Really Happened
Falling In a Sidewalk Grate: So, we’ll be honest, we’ve never worried that much about falling into a manhole cover. Why not? Well, there are so many more things to worry about falling into! Like sidewalk grates. When we walk our dog, she goes out of her way to avoid them, and even though this is probably because the metal hurts her paws, we like to think it’s because she senses how treacherous they are. So we avoid them too. But we used to think that our fear was maybe irrational, until 2009 that is, when “dozens of schoolgirls posing for graduation pictures outside a Brooklyn yeshiva plunged 12 feet down a shaft Friday when the grate they were standing on suddenly collapsed.” Fortunately, only two of the girls had serious injuries, but it’s definitely made us feel justified in never walking on sidewalk grates. You can’t be too careful out there, you know?
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