Teen Too Busy Texting Falls Down A Manhole

If you’re thinking the worst part of this story is that an idiot teen was paying too much attention to her mobile phone not to notice an open manhole cover, you’re woefully mistaken.

A U.S. teen did indeed fall down an uncovered manhole while texting. But she’s OK. So what’s the problem?

Her parents have said they’re going to sue! Because that will make their kid less of an idiot?

The Department of Environmental Protection in NYC has stated that workers were about to put cones out when Alexa Longueira came along, her eyes focused on the message she was sending instead of the sidewalk in front of her. Their backs momentarily turned to get the cones, the workers didn’t see her in time to warn her, and the girl fell four or five feet.

She had minor cuts and bruises, but her parents are still talking lawsuit. Who, exactly, are they going to sue? The city I would imagine for daring to have a manhole uncovered. If the DEP story doesn’t hold water and workers had just forgotten to put up some warning, the sad thing is, they might actually win.

But what purpose will it serve? Will their kid learn to watch where she’s going? Will she tear her eyes away from the stupid mobile? One of my colleagues once compared dodging the kids on phones and listening to headphones on a university campus to playing a game of Frogger. But where they can’t hear anything with something clamped over their ears, texting has proven equally if not MORE dangerous because kids are tuning out the world AND not looking around them.

But hey, at least they can earn Mum and Dad some fast cash for acting like a moron.

Image/Source: MSNBC