A New Jersey woman who appeared to be texting while walking on a sidewalk was seriously injured in a fall through an open sidewalk cellar door Thursday afternoon.
The 67-year-old woman appeared to be distracted by her mobile device when she tumbled head first over the side of the open bilco doors shortly after noon in front of Acme Windows on Somerset Street in Plainfield, ABC 7 reported.
She reportedly suffered serious injuries when she fell six feet to the floor beneath the sidewalk. Plainfield Fire Division personnel rescued her, and she was transported to an area hospital, where she was listed in serious condition, the station noted.
The incident was caught on camera, and the video has gone viral.
“When I first saw the video, my heart dropped,” the unidentified woman’s son told CBS New York. “It was painful to watch.”
He said his mother is legally blind and diabetic.
”She regularly takes on schedule her meals and checks her sugar. As far as I was told, when she was walking down the street, she felt a little nauseous in a sense, and looked at her phone to see what time it was," the woman’s son told the station.
The doors were open for work to repair a gas line.
Twitter users shared the story as a warning to others distracted by their phones.