Part-time sanitation worker Eric Pagan, 20, was shoveling snow outside a Department of Sanitation depot in Inwood yesterday when he fell through a ventilation grate for the 1 train. Pagan had spent the day shoveling sidewalks and crosswalks for the city, but when he returned to the depot, the supervisor wouldn't let him knock off because it wasn't quite 5 p.m. yet. Instead, Pagan and another worker were tasked with shoveling the sidewalk outside the depot. Minutes later, he was bleeding at the bottom of a hole. more ›

Early yesterday morning the Man came to Brandon Moore's basement apartment in Crown Heights to serve a robbery warrant. Roused from sleep, Moore was undressed when the police appeared at his residence, and covered himself with a sheet. But suddenly he decided to make a break for it, and bolted from the apartment. The sheet fell, Moore kept running, and according to the Daily News one of the cops chasing him fell through a metal sidewalk grate, landing in a basement ten feet below. The reactions from bystanders are priceless. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a 10-year-old fell through a sidewalk grate while walking with his family in Harlem. According to the Daily News, Aboubaca Meite had been running on Morningside Avenue near 125th Street: "The boy fell about 8 feet, hitting his head and landing awkwardly on his leg when he crashed onto the concrete under the former M&G's Soul Food restaurant." Yikes. A witness told WCBS 2, "I heard the father holler and jump down in there. They tried to get him out and everything. I went over, and we were going to get him out [but] he said leave him down there because he might be injured. So we left him down there till the paramedics come." Luckily, Aboubaca only suffered a sprained leg; the fourth grader told the News, "It just suddenly fell. It was dark in the hole [and] I was scared." The Department of Buildings hasn't determine whether the building owner will face violations. In May, 34 children were injured when grating outside a school collapsed (the children were posing for a photograph); the school was issued a violation for not maintaining the grate. more ›

Could this be an instance where Con Ed isn't to blame? The utility says that a garbage truck may have compromised the sidewalk grate a young woman fell through earlier this year! In May, a woman fell 10-12 feet through sidewalk grating outside 150 West 51st street. Luckily, Jessica Hinksmon only suffered minor injuries, narrowly avoiding being electrocuted by an electrical transformer. Con Ed says that a video shows a private sanitation truck driving... more ›