In a rather freak accident, “waiting to happen” as New York’s WCBS has aptly put it, 15-year-old Alexa Longueira of Staten Island became the latest walking-texting victim, when she vanished into an uncovered manhole!

Obliviously tapping text messages into her phone as she walked, the unsuspecting Longueira failed to notice the open manhole in her way, and stumbled into it. Going by the description of the incident at SILive.com, Longueira plunged five feet into the manhole, and scrapped her back and arms, before finally landing in a heap of muck.

Longueira, who received moderate injuries, called the impromptu lunge into the sewerage as “really gross... shocking and scary.”

The manhole had been left unattended by the workers of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a brief span when they were obtaining cones and markers for barricading it. It was these workers who helped Longueira out of the manhole. The department has issued a formal apology for the ‘unfortunate’ incident.

While the observers are widely divided about who is to blame – the DEP for its negligence in covering the manhole, or Longueira herself for being seemingly careless - the Longueira family intends pursuing the legal recourse.

With accidents while texting increasing, different states have banned texting while driving – last year, there was a proposal from Illinois, which sought to make texting and walking illegal!