Has anybody fallen through a sidewalk grate?

[wierdaaron]

While walking around the greater downtown area, I often find myself treading over a steel grate covering some enormous hole in the sidewalk that I assume serves as a storm drain and allows for utility access.

When I'm brave enough to look down through the grate, occasionally I notice that the distance between me and the next solid surface is 20 or more feet.

The grates are plenty solid, I'm sure, but some of them wobble strangely when you walk over them, or have warped slightly from thousands of husky midwesterners walking across them every day.

So I have to wonder, have these things ever failed catastrophically and caused someone to tumble down into the concrete darkness? I'd like to know whether I should be walking around these things or not.

[SpoilerVirgin]

Yes, it happens occasionally, usually due to poor maintenance.

Boy Injured After Falling Through Harlem Sidewalk Grate

Woman Falls Through Sidewalk Grate

The injuries tend to be fairly minor.

This topic is of interest to me because I walked to elementary school every day past (or over) a number of sidewalk grates, and an older girl told me a horror story of someone falling down one, breaking both her legs, and being trapped. I still sometimes think of that story as I'm walking over a sidewalk grate. Thanks a lot, Mary, you scarred me for life!