NYC woman swallowed by caved in sidewalk in Washington Heights

Mariana Fuentes was pushing her flower cart on West 158th Street in the Washington Heights section of New York City on Saturday morning. Suddenly, the sidewalk collapsed underneath her, sending the 47-year-old five or six feet down into a four-foot wide hole.

Video footage captured the moment the pavement collapsed

Surveillance footage captured the moment when Fuentes suddenly disappeared from sight as the pavement gave way beneath her. The New York Daily News reports she fell into an abandoned underground vault located next to the building in which she lives with her family.

Fuentes’ husband, Juan Trujillo, was standing close to her when it happened and was horrified as he saw the sidewalk give way and swallow her up.

Neighbor explains the woman is the family’s sole breadwinner

The New York Post quotes a neighbor, who only gave the name Jorge, as saying he heard a loud bang. When he looked out his window he saw Fuentes lying at the bottom of the hole. He said her leg had been pinned by a chunk of concrete.

He said he rushed outside and could hear her screaming and calling for help, saying she was hurt. According to Jorge, Fuentes is her family’s sole breadwinner and makes money selling flowers from her cart, adding that she and her husband have two sons. He also explained that her husband had recently been run over by a city bus and is unable to work, while their oldest child is about to start college.

According to the NYPD, Fuentes was taken to Harlem Hospital where she received treatment for a fractured right leg and other injuries and is stable. However, her husband keeps reliving the moment he saw his wife fall down the hole in the sidewalk saying it was terrible for him to see her standing there and suddenly disappearing.

Building closed by authorities

The Department of Buildings posted a “do not enter” sign on the building soon after the sidewalk collapsed, which said entry into the premises was “perilous to life.” An inspector later found the vault cover on the sidewalk to be “defective.” According to the Post, that same building had had various other problems in the past, including an exhaust chimney which separated from the building in 2010.

There was reportedly another similar incident in 2013 when a 32-year-old woman, Ulanda Williams was sheltering from the rain under an awning on the Upper East Side of New York. She suddenly fell six feet down a hole after the cement in the sidewalk caved in. Williams broke her arm in the incident.