Who Is To Blame?

[tfischer]

Yes city workers created an abnormal situation, but the again, what if for example she had stepped out into traffic from between a couple of cars and been struck, would it be the drivers fault?.

Not even close to a parallel situation. Walking out into traffic is a dangerous situation, and if she did that with her head buried in the phone (or a book, or gabbing to a friend right next to her...) that's her own fault.

But walking down a sidewalk is a different story. We all have peripheral vision. I'm guessing she doesn't go walking into people, or parking meters, or trees, on a regular basis, but I'm guessing she DOES text while walking on a regular basis (do I support doing this? No... but that doesn't remove liability from the city for keeping the sidewalks safe from holes that drop off into the sewers). One has the right to expect they can walk without staring at the ground for fear of dropping off into a pit.

[Pappy]

The difference in my mind is that the open manhole was not a normal hazard. Trees, signposts, traffic, parked cars are. Other pedestrians in her way...lead with the shoulder and aim for the phone!

[jonmulzer]

It is the city's fault, almost entirely. Had she not been texting she MIGHT have not stepped into the manhole. Had they not pulled the lid and left it unattended she certainly would not have fallen in.

We had the lid pulled on a fiber optic vault the other day and a truck driver we had for the day stepped off into it even though it was coned off and knew it was there. That was his fault. We had taken all the precautions, including not allowing pedestrian traffic other than workers within 100' of it. We had that in place before we pulled the lid.

BTW, that truck driver was over 70 years old, refused medical attention and asked if he could go home early to sew it up himself. Tough old bird and he was back at work the next day. It literally split three fingers open to the bone, no bones broke though.