The heartbroken family of the grandmother killed after falling into a steaming, open manhole two months ago has filed a wrongful death suit against Con Edison for failing to secure the access point that also left her long-term boyfriend burned and bedridden.
Donike Gocaj’s family and partner filed the lawsuit against the utility company in New York Supreme Court on Thursday, alleging the utility company’s negligence led the Westchester woman to plunge into the uncovered, sweltering utility hole on May 18.
Gocaj, 56, had stepped out of her vehicle to meet up with her boyfriend, Jashar “Jack” Kameraj, between work shifts that night when she plummeted into the manhole near East 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue, family attorney Howard Hershenhorn told The Post.
The hardworking mother screamed, “I’m dying, I’m dying,” as Kameraj tried to get down into the manhole to retrieve her, and terrified bystanders ran up and down the street in search of a ladder to pull her to safety.
But Gocaj eventually succumbed to horrific scald burns, inhalation thermal injuries, and blunt force trauma as she remained trapped.
Kameraj also suffered devastating inhalation thermal injuries and burns while trying to save Gocaj, leaving him now bedridden, according to the lawsuit filed by the firm Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman, and Mackauf.
“It was a frantic scene, right there with everybody trying to save her because they could see her through the hole. They could hear her through the hole, but they could not help her,” Hershenhorn said.
“And Jack … she was really his family, and she was the closest person to him, and they would see each other all the time, every day, and they were extremely close,” he added.
Gocaj’s family now claims that ConEd endangered Gocaj, Kameraj, and scores of New Yorkers by not implementing proper safety measures to prevent manhole covers from dislodging.
The company knew that its manhole covers, including the one Gocaj fell into, could “become dislodged and displaced by, among other things, vehicle traffic and/or heavy vehicles,” the filing alleged.
A representative for ConEd previously told The Post that a passing truck appeared to have dislodged the utility hole’s cover less than 15 minutes before Gocaj arrived Monday night and parked along the avenue.
