Thursday, January 04, 2007

Wow


Miracle Under 137th Street: Subway Save For Ages
Navy Vet Pulls Seizure Victim Under Train, Both Escape

From WCBSTV Website:

(CBS) NEW YORK - In an incredible case of heroism and bravery, a man who fell onto subway tracks early this afternoon and a good samaritan who then jumped on the tracks to save him miraculously suffered only minor injuries after an oncoming subway train actually ran over them.

The incident happened about 1 p.m. at Broadway IRT station at 137th Street when a 20-year-old man apparently tumbled onto the tracks after suffering from a seizure.

Another subway passenger, 50-year-old Wesley Autrey, was standing on the platform with his two daughters whom he was taking home so he could go to his construction job. When Autrey saw the man fall, he quickly took action and left his daughters to jump on the tracks and bring the man to safety as an oncoming train approached.

More at the link above. Amazing quick thinking and astonishing bravery. I am in awe of such persons.

UPDATE: Aftermath of the heroic rescue, from the NY Times:

Moments after the train came to a halt, Mr. Autrey recounted yesterday, Mr. Hollopeter asked if he was dead. “I said, ‘You are very much alive, but if you move you’ll kill the both of us.’ ” Both men emerged from the episode with little more than bruises, but Mr. Autrey also emerged a star.

Mr. Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker, said he knew something was different when he showed up for work later on Tuesday. His boss, he said, bought him lunch — a ham-and-cheese hero — and later told him to take yesterday off.

Then yesterday morning, as he walked to his mother’s apartment in Harlem, “a stranger came up and put $10 in my hand,” he said. “People in my neighborhood were like, ‘Yo, I know this guy.’ ”

Once at his mother’s apartment, he held interviews in the living room with some of the national morning news programs.

There are some nice words from the rescued man's father, as well as word that Donald Trump has a check "waiting (for him)." I hope this is just the tip of the iceburg for good things coming to Mr. Autrey.

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