A 20-year-old man is counting his lucky stars after he was saved from being hit by a 400 ton subway train after drunkenly falling onto the tracks on Friday night. With the northbound E train full steam ahead his way, a few men sprang into action to save his life.
Had it been a typical day, the station would have been packed and he possibly would have gone unnoticed…but the snow storm in the northeast worked to his advantage. 4 signal maintainers were on their way to fix a piece of equipment, 5 hours after their shift had ended, but being held over if needed during the storm. A passenger riding from LIC stopped them to tell them of the man who fell on the tracks, and they quickly sprang into action.
“I radioed the rail control center to say there was an intoxicated person on the platform, to slow down the trains,” one of the workers recalled. “I turned around for one second, and the next thing I know, he’s down. He’s on the tracks. He’s just laying there, not moving at all.”
Two of the men started to try and move him, while the rest called in to the control center. Yet, no response was received. As an alternative, they waved their orange “flagging” lanterns horizontally, a visual cue for a motorman to hit the brakes. Thankfully, they were able to stop the train just 300 feet outside the station. Luck was definitely on that man’s side!
