Teen ‘Left to Die’ After 50 Foot Shaft Fall on Bridge Has Brain Injury: Report
The mother of the teen who fell down a 50 ft shaft on the Queensboro Bridge Feb. 16 says that his companions left her son to die after the fall of Feb. 16 in which he sustained a serious brain injury.
| 20 Feb 2026 | 12:03
An injured 16-year-old teen was hoisted from a 50 ft maintenance shaft on the Queensboro Bridge on Feb. 16. His companions fled after he fell leaving him alone in the shaft for hours. He lost blood and suffered a brain injury. (
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Before Frankie’s companions fled, they made a video of the tragic fall and a voice can be heard moaning. Firefighters finally located the shaft where the teen fell when they saw a shoe (pictured) and spotted blood. By then the teen had been in the bottom of the shaft for hours, suffering blood loss and hypothermia. (
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Firefighters took hours to make the complicated, confined space extraction of the injured teen on the night of Feb. 16. Over 75 firefighters and EMS personnel responded, snarling traffic on the Queensboro bridge for hours. (
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Firefighters had to use ten pieces of equipment to extract the injured 16 -old-boy from the bottom of a narrow, 50 ft maintenance shaft. The boys mother said he suffered brain injuries and will have to learn to walk again. (
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It took firefighters several hours to find and extract the critically injured teen who had fallen down a 50 ft shaft on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge on Feb. 16. (
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A 16-year-old boy abandoned by companions after he tumbled down a 50 ft. maintenance shaft on the Queensboro Bridge has sustained brain injuries, according to the boy’s mother.
The injured teen’s mother, Vanessa Tineo, said in an interview with Gothamist that her son, Frankie Allocca, has been “in and out of consciousness” since he was rescued by firefighters in an complex hours long operation on Feb. 16.
“They left him there to die,” said Tineo said of the companions who fled after her son’s fall. She told the outlet her son sustained brain injuries from the fall and will have to learn to walk again.
According to social media posts, at least four companions went with Frankie when they climbed onto the Queens side of the bridge. When he fell, his companions filmed his anguished moans from the bottom of the shaft and then fled taking his cell phone with them, according to social media posts. One OP claimed one of the companions took Frankie’s cell phone and tossed it into a sewer. And it appears he was at the bottom of the shaft from 3 p.m. Firefighters did not locate him until 8:15 p.m. when a tedious hours long rescure that did not wrap up until after 11 p.m. began.
Two people have been arrested. A 14-year-old boy turned himself into police on Feb. 19 and was charged with reckless endangerment and trespassing. A 15-old was earlier charged with criminal trespass.
As Our Town first reported, chatter on social media said Frankie fell down the shaft around 3 p.m. But police said the first 911 call did not come in until 5:46 p.m., nearly three hours after he fell down the shaft.
That delayed alarm only happened because someone who was not on the bridge realized that first responders were never notified about the incident. Adriana Vincente, an 18 year old told the Gothamist that the companions who were on the bridge with Allocca contacted her.
”The kids who were with him contacted me because they did not know what to do,” Vincente told Gothamist. “They were scared of getting a murder charge. I was like ‘I’m going to call the police’.”
Even then, police initially did not find the injured teen after they responded to the first 911 call. It took a second call at 8:15 before firefighters, searching down numerous shafts, finally saw a shoe and blood inside the shaft where the teen had fallen.X
A video on FDNY X said members of Rescue 1 and other first responders had to search two or three of the bridge anchorages because none of the people who were with the victim when he fell were on the bridge to pinpoint the exact location. It had to be gleaned from info that Vincente, who was never on the bridge, picked up on the social media stream from the companions who had fled. FDNY confined space rescure did not get underway until 8:50 p.m. By then, the victim had been at the bottom of the shaft nearly six hours.
“The FDNY had to search each shaftway of the Queensboro bridge until they found Frankie’s shoe and blood,” said a petition on Change.org, which was calling for the companions to be criminally prosecuted. It had over 1,100 signatories by the evening of Feb. 19. “None of the people involved in the accident including all of the ‘friends’ involved were present at the rescue,” according to the petition entitled “Investigate and Charge ‘Friends’ of Frankie for Leaving Him to Die.”
The post continued: “This tragedy could have very well resulted in the death of 16-year-old Frankie. Frankie’s ‘friends’ could have prevented Frankie from sustaining additional life threatening injuries and hypothermia by immediately calling for emergency services.”
A GoFundMe had raised over $13,000 toward an $18,000 goal by Feb. 19, three days after the nearly fatal accident. “No one deserves to be abandoned in their worst moment,” the GoFundMe post said. “After he fell, the people he was with recorded him as he screamed for help. Instead of helping him, they left him there. They even took his phone and disposed of it, leaving him with no way to call for help. Frankie lay alone for over four hours, bleeding and exposed to the cold. 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,” the GoFundMe said. “His survival is nothing short of a miracle. But he now faces a long road of surgeries, recovery, and rehabilitation. Medical bills are rising quickly as he begins the difficult process of rebuilding his life.”
About 75 firefighters and EMS personnel responded along with an NYPD helicopter over the bridge and an NYPD police boat in the water. FDNY Lt Gaulrapp said the opening was less than 3 ft by 3 ft. The rescue operation did not wrap until after 11 p.m. A police dispatcher the night of the rescue said the injured teen was a “code red patient” which meant the injured person was critical with life threatening injuries.
He was brought to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and stabilized but the full extent of his injuries were not known at the time.