Family sues New York City utility over woman’s fatal manhole fall
This screen grab from a video shows the manhole where the incident occured, on May 19, 2026, in New York. (WABC)
(NEW YORK) — The family of a Westchester grandmother who died after falling into an open manhole in Midtown Manhattan filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the utility responsible for the manhole, alleging its workers failed to properly seal the cover.
Donike Goncaj, 56, fell into the manhole at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue on May 18 and died of scald burns and thermal inhalation from the steam. The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court on Thursday, says she suffered “severe, horrifying, and catastrophic injuries.”
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Goncaj’s death an accident.
The utility, Con Edison, concluded a truck ran over the manhole and dislodged the cover and noted in a statement in May that “while this is a rare occurrence, manhole covers can get displaced by heavy vehicles.”
The lawsuit, filed by Goncaj’s son on behalf of her estate, and her domestic partner, alleged ConEdison “should have known that dislodged and displaced manhole covers presented a recurring and foreseeable danger to pedestrians” and accused the utility of negligence, carelessness and reckless disregard for their mother’s safety.
Someone falling to their death in a manhole “ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit contended that ConEd and its contractors “had a duty to maintain” the manhole “in reasonably safe conditions,” including warning pedestrians and providing a ladder or staircase to exit it.
ConEd did not immediately comment on the suit. In May, it said it was investigating the situation and working with the city in its probe.
“Our thoughts remain with her family, and safety remains our top priority,” ConEd said in a statement a day after the incident.
According to the lawsuit, Goncaj’s domestic partner, Jashar Kameraj, witnessed her falling into the scalding hot manhole and tried to rescue her, to no avail.
Kameraj and Goncaj’s son are seeking unspecified damages.
-ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
A view of gas pumps at a USA Gasoline station on May 04, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has called for the Department of Justice to “immediately start looking into” oil companies as he accused them of price gouging and not lowering the “price at the pump” fast enough in a message on social media.
“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’”
“I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this,” Trump continued. “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”
A DOJ spokesperson responded to Trump’s post, telling ABC News that “The price of fuel is not only a national security issue, it impacts the wallet of every American. We will always commit to ensuring affordability in this nation.”
Trump’s call for the investigation comes amid reports of ships beginning to move oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) through the Strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices have continued to lower recently as peace talks between the United States and Iran have been taking place. U.S. oil is trading at $70.13 a barrel — down 4.18% — and global oil is trading at $73.74 — down 4.28%. Oil is now close to where it was before the war began — U.S. oil ended at $67 a barrel the Friday before the war started.
The Treasury’s move allowing more Iranian oil onto the market until Aug. 21 and reports there was more traffic in the Strait of Hormuz are helping push oil prices lower.
The average price of a gallon of regular gas is $3.90, down 9 cents from last week’s average, according to GasBuddy.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said Sunday that oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is “already back to normal” after the U.S. and Iran signed a preliminary agreement to reopen the critical waterway while negotiators spend the next two months trying to work out yet-to-be-resolved nuclear issues.
“I’m long out of the business of predicting oil or gasoline prices, but they will continue to head down. Flows of oil and natural gas through the straits have already returned to normal, and they will continue that way whatever happens with the negotiations with the Iranians,” Wright said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “We’ve got growing American production, surging production in Venezuela. We’ve got cooperation with all the other energy producers of the world. So, I think Americans can expect continued declines in energy prices.”
U.S. and Iranian leaders signed a memorandum of understanding last week that appears to have broken the monthslong stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway in the Gulf region through which around 20% of the global oil supply normally transits to enter the market.
Energy prices spiked in May, with U.S. gas prices averaging $4.56 per gallon over the month, according to Gas Buddy.
A 2-year-old girl has died after being left in a hot minivan while in the care of a babysitter, police in Florida said.
Officers found the little girl when they responded to a home around 1:35 p.m. Sunday in Hallandale Beach, about 20 miles north of Miami, Hallandale Beach police said.
The heat index – what the temperature it feels like with humidity – soared to 101 degrees on Sunday in Hallandale Beach.
The 2-year-old was taken to a hospital and later declared dead, authorities said.
It’s not clear how long she was in the car. Police said prosecutors are reviewing the case and “no charging decision has been made at this time.”
“This is a heartbreaking loss, and our thoughts are with the child’s family, and everyone affected by this tragedy,” the Hallandale Beach Police Department said in a statement. “We also want to use this moment to remind every parent, guardian, and caregiver in our community: Always check the back seat before locking your vehicle and walking away.”
This is at least the 10th child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org. Last year, at least 37 children died in hot cars across the country, KidsAndCars.org said.
Click here for what to know to keep your children safe from hot car dangers.
Texas State Troopers arrive in a Dilley I.S.D. school bus before dispersing a crowd protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. (Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Joaquin Castro, along with more than 110 Democratic members of Congress, has sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin urging the shutdown of the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.
The facility, which is the only family detention center in the country, was closed during the Biden administration but was reopened last year as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
In the letter, which was first obtained by ABC News, they write, “There is no humane way to imprison a child and their family. It is nothing more than a trailer prison that detains families. In fact, the Dilley facility is the only place in the United States dedicated to detaining families with children who have not been charged with a crime.”
“Former and current detained families describe horrific conditions perpetuated by CoreCivic and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are meant to strip them of their dignity and make them feel hopeless,” the letter says.
The letter outlines how parents have described “horrendous conditions at Dilley,” including allegations of food “contaminated with worms and mold,” drinking water that leaves detainees feeling sick, lights that stay on through the night and inadequate education and medical care that has led to “severe depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation amongst their children,” according to the letter.
Medical care “is delayed, denied, and in many cases outright dismissed, even when children are suffering life threatening medical emergencies,” the letter says, describing an alleged incident in which a young boy was not taken to the hospital until after several days of “severe stomach pain,” after which he was diagnosed with appendicitis and required surgery.
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals and lawmakers have previously raised concerns about conditions at the South Texas facility.
ABC News in February interviewed a couple who said their 1-year-old daughter contracted COVID-19 and RSV during their 60-day detention. The family alleged that medical staff at Dilley dismissed their daughter’s symptoms.
Rep. Castro raised his own concerns about a 2-month old he encountered while visiting another family at the facility in February.
At the time, the top medical official at the Department of Homeland Security, which operates the nation’s migrant detention centers, disputed any suggestion that detainees are being denied proper care.
“These allegations of illegal aliens being denied proper medical care in ICE custody are FALSE,” DHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Conley told ABC News in a statement. “It is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, women’s health, mental health services, any needed follow up medical appointments, as well as 24-hour emergency care.”
“This is better, more responsive health care than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” Conley’s statement said.
“These representatives remain quiet about the humanitarian crisis that was manufactured by the Biden Administration’s open border policies over the last four years and the scores of children exploited, trafficked and missing,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Do they plan to mention the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border — many by human and sex traffickers?”
“We’ve jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children. President Trump and DHS are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families,” the spokesperson said.
The Democrats’ letter also claims that children are held at the Dilley facility beyond the general 20-day limit established under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a legal settlement from the 1990s that outlines appropriate protections and conditions for detaining minors.
“Families at Dilley report being held well beyond that limit with no clear timeline or explanation,” the letter says. “In February and March 2026, the government has stated that children’s average time in custody at Dilley was approximately 57 days, and the median time in custody was approximately 44 days, with 92 children being detained for 61-90 days, and 80 children detained for more than 91 days.”
A DHS spokesperson, responding to a February ABC News report about the extended custody times, said, “For years, the Flores consent decree has been a tool of the left to promote an open borders agenda. It is long overdue for a single district in California to stop managing the Executive Branch’s immigration functions. The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our immigration system.”
“No child should be in a place like the Dilley Trailer Prison,” Castro said in a statement. “Under Trump, ICE is ripping children away from their families, school, and lives. They should be treated like kids — not criminals. I am grateful that over 100 of my colleagues in Congress are joining the fight to shut down the Dilley Trailer Prison.”
In addition to shuttering Dilley, the letter demands that DHS terminates the contract it has with CoreCivic, the private prison contractor that operates the Dilley facility. The letter alleges that “CoreCivic is prioritizing profits over humane treatment of its detainees.”
“No child and family should be imprisoned for seeking safety by legitimately following United States immigration laws,” the letter says. “The United States has the tools, the resources, and the legal framework to process these families without detention.”
