New York woman dies after stepping out of car into open manhole

Family seeks answers after incident at uncovered maintenance hole near Cartier building late at night Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The family of a New York woman is struggling for answers after the 56-year-old fell to her death upon stepping out of her car and slipping down an open maintenance hole on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. The woman in question died on Monday night and was identified by family members as Donike Gocaj, from Briarcliff Manor, a commuter belt area north of New York City. Police say she parked her Mercedes-Benz SUV at West 52nd and Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan just before 11.20pm. She had stepped out of the car and directly into the maintenance hole in front of the Cartier mansion. Gocaj fell down about 10ft (3m), and steam caused her to go into cardiac arrest. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The New York television station, WABC, later reported that an autopsy established Gocaj died from both the fall as well as “scald burns with inhalation thermal injury” because of the steam often present in open maintenance holes. The outlet also spoke to her Gocaj’s family members – they said they were saddened and shocked