Last week, 15-year-old Alexa Longuiera took an unexpected plunge down an open manhole while walking the streets of Staten Island.
The kicker is that text messaging distracted her from the ever-closer danger.
The second kicker is that there were no warning signs or barricades to prevent such an accident.
A thorough sanitizing and several minor injuries later, Longuiera and her mishap received much attention.
The story has been linked into articles and used as a segue to the dangers of texting while driving and the debate on whether legislation should be put into action to crack down.
The story also stirred up debates on who is at fault. The girl? The city? Or again, text messaging?
The parents are apparently trying to sue the city for its oversight.
We think all of these reactions are from far out of left field.
Trying to spin this into another example to back anti-texting-while-driving legislation? Come on!
To us, it seems that too many people are trying to create a culprit and point the finger at something that isn't there.
Clearly, the girl is responsible for her sewage bath.
Yes, the city should have set up barricades or posted some sort of cautionary sign to warn pedestrians, but that isn't enough to blame the incident on the city.
Suppose someone had walked off the curb into oncoming traffic while distracted by a text message on their phone. Would the city be at fault here?
We think people just want to blame text-messaging. This could have easily happened with Longuiera walking down the street while reading a magazine.
Zooming out, we feel we see this happening far too often -- people trying to transfer blame onto an innocent party.
The solution is simple: own up to your mistakes.
Honestly, who else could be at fault when a person walks directly into an uncovered manhole?
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