Community Corner
NJ Man Was More Than Just A Fall Caught On Google Maps: Report
A Hoboken man will be remembered for much more than his now-infamous fall down a flight of stairs, a report says.
HOBOKEN, NJ — His name was Irving de Jesus Espinal. And he was more than a viral photo, a report says.
In August of 2018, a Google Maps car captured a series of images of a man as he fell down a flight of stairs in Hoboken. It took a while for the internet to catch on to the fact that if you typed “725 Willow Avenue - Hoboken, New Jersey” into the search bar, you could literally see the man’s brutal, head-first descent onto a hard, concrete step.
After news of the strange-but-true photos broke on social media, thousands of people left comments about the images online. Many expressed concern about the man’s well-being and hoped that he was OK.
Find out what's happening in Hobokenfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
- See related article: Man's Fall Down Hoboken Staircase Captured On Google Maps
After Patch published an article about the falling man – whose identity was then unknown – a bystander on the scene left the following comment on our story:
“Hi! I am the girl in the black holding the flowers. I called an ambulance for the gentleman that fell and they came to take care of him. He was okay!”
The woman's claim that the man wasn’t seriously injured in the fall was corroborated in a recent New Jersey News 12 segment. But the reporter also discovered – sadly – that the man has since passed away… albeit from cancer. (Read the full article here)
Find out what's happening in Hobokenfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
News 12 New Jersey’s Brian Donohue reported that Irving de Jesus Espinal passed away on Nov. 26 at the age of 67 – more than six months after his fall at 725 Willow Avenue.
A neighbor called Espinal a “hell of a nice guy.”
He lived a rich life, News 12 stated:
“Espinal was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States as a young man, raising one child with his wife. Friends say that he liked to paint, but that music was his true passion, singing in various bands over the years. He held different jobs before retiring and was once superintendent of 725 Willow Ave., where his wife still lives.”
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