Teen Finally Home after Falling Down Shaft on Queensboro Bridge
Three teens, who abandoned the 16-year-old victim after he fell 50 ft. down a worker’s maintenance shaft while they were in midst of making a video were arrested in the days after Feb. 16 incident.
| 02 Apr 2026 | 05:25
It was a difficult rescue for firefighters who had to hoist the injured teen from the bottom of a narrow 50 ft maintenance shaft on the Queensboro Bridge where he had fallen while filming a stunt with “urban explorer” companions. (
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Firefighters eventually found 16-year-old boy at the bottom of a 50 ft shaft hours after he had been abandoned by companions. He spent weeks recovering but his mom posted on social media recently that he is now home and “healing.” (
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Injured teen after being hoisted by firefighters from a 50 shaft on the Queensboro Bridge on Feb. 16. “Friends,” who thought he was dead, never called authorities. (
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The shaft that 16-year-old Frank Allocca fell down on Feb. 16 and was then abandoned as his companions fled. Firefighters finally located him hours later after noticing blood and a shoe to the right of the ladder in the maintenance workers’ shaft. (
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A 16-year-old boy who was critically injured after he fell down a 50 ft shaft on the Queensboro Bridge and was abandoned by his companions arrived home on Long Island recently after spending up to a month in the hospital recovering from injuries suffered in the fall.
News that the victim, Frankie Allocca, had arrived home was posted on a GoFundMe site by his mother, Vanessa Tineo, who thanked supporters in a post on March 15, nearly a month after the near fatal accident on Feb. 16. She gave no update on his condition beyond saying he was “now home” and “just needs some time to heal completely.”
In the days after her son was rescued by firefighters, the anguished mom, in an interview with Gothamist, said the companions of her son that fateful day “left him to die.”
Firefighters spent hours extracting the injured teen from the maintenance shaft that he was exploring with several other teen urban explorers when he apparently slipped off a ladder and fell to the bottom of the cold dark shaft. A police dispatcher on the night of the rescue described him as a “code red patient” which generally describes a person in a life threatening emergency situation. EMS rushed the teen to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center where he was later said to be in stable condition. But his injuries were such that he was going to have to learn to walk again, according to a social media post by a family friend.
In the a What’s App video reviewed by the NY Post, Frankie can be heard screaming, “my leg, my leg!” but none of the companions entered the shaft to try to save him.
“Bro, Frankie is dead. Frankie is f–king dead. Oh my God. No, no, no,” one of the companions can be heard saying after they climbed back to the bridge roadway. .
Family friend, David Darcy, who started the GoFundMe that raised $20,738 as of April 2 said all of Frankie’s “friends” fled without notifying authorities. “No one deserves to be abandoned in their worst moment,” Darcy wrote.
“Instead of helping him, they left him there,” Darcy wrote. They even took his phone and disposed of it, leaving him with no way to call for help.”
Darcy said it took first responders four hours to locate the injured 16-year-old. “Frankie lay alone for over four hours, bleeding and exposed to the cold,” Darcy wrote. “By the time help arrived, he had lost a severe amount of blood and was hypothermic.
“Doctors have said he is expected to live and walk again. His survival is nothing short of a miracle.”
A 17 year old girl who joined a What’s App discussion that included some of the companions who had fled, realized that nobody had called police. First responders answered the call but were initially not able to find him. They returned several hours later and he was finally able to be hoisted from the dark, shaft nearly six hours after he fell.
His mother, Vanessa Tineo, made a post on the GoFundMe page heralding the news that her son was home, but made no further update on his physical condition in a post on March 15.
“We want to thank everyone for your love and support,” wrote Tineo, his mom. “Thank you all very much for the kind words and donations. Frankie is doing well now home just needs some time to heal completely. One day at a time!!”
She made no further comment on his condition.
At least three teens were arrested in connection with the incident.
A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Feb. 17 and charged with criminal trespass. A 15-year-old, who turned himself into the 20th Pct on Feb. 18, was charged with criminal endangerment and criminal trespass. A third 14-year-old was also arrested on Feb. 20 and charged with criminal endangerment and criminal trespass.
Criminal endangerment could be a felony if it also involved depraved indifference to human life. It could not be determined if the two who were facing criminal endangerment counts were hit with misdemeanor or felony charges. The names of the three defendants were not released due to their ages and the cases fell under the jurisdiction of Family Court rather than the Manhattan District Attorney.