A quick guide to New York City’s fall hazards and dropped objects dangers
Planning to vacation in the Big Apple this summer? You might want to give yourself a safety briefing before taking to the streets. The Village Voice recently listed hazardous situations regularly encountered in the hustle and bustle of the city that never sleeps.
You fall through a subway grate on the sidewalk. One fellow fell about 20 feet when a subway gate opened beneath him in Brooklyn. Several incidents of people falling after subway gates gave way were reported in 2014. One person falls through a grate every 20months, according to city officials.
You fall through a sidewalk cellar door. Unlike subway grates — relatively sturdy by comparison — the trapdoor going down to the cellar of any street-level business can be springy in the middle, like a bear trap for humans, according to The Voice. A man walking in Bedford-Stuyvesant in mid-day fell 12 feet and was killed after the trap door in front of an abandoned auto repair shop opened beneath him.