Man Is Rescued by Stranger on Subway Tracks

AJChenMPH

Forum Health Inspector
Ed. Note: this guy must have cajones out to here! *holds hands as far apart as he can* :shock:

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January 3, 2007
Man Is Rescued by Stranger on Subway Tracks
By CARA BUCKLEY

It was every subway rider’s nightmare, times two.

Who has ridden along New York’s 656 miles of subway lines and not wondered: “What if I fell to the tracks as a train came in? What would I do?”

And who has not thought: “What if someone else fell? Would I jump to the rescue?”

Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker and Navy veteran, faced both those questions in a flashing instant yesterday, and got his answers almost as quickly.

Mr. Autrey was waiting for the downtown local at 137th Street and Broadway in Manhattan around 12:45 p.m. He was taking his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6, home before work.

Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. Mr. Autrey and two women rushed to help, he said. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, 20, managed to get up, but then stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails.

The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said.

So he made one, and leapt.

Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.

Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause.

Power was cut, and workers got them out. Mr. Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy, was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He had only bumps and bruises, said his grandfather, Jeff Friedman. The police said it appeared that Mr. Hollopeter had suffered a seizure.

Mr. Autrey refused medical help, because, he said, nothing was wrong. He did visit Mr. Hollopeter in the hospital before heading to his night shift. “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”

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Wesley Autrey

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.html
 
A real American Hero. A blue collar worker, father or two daughters, navy vet, and lastly. An honest man who claimed that a bump and bruise is not an injury nor that what he did is anything special.

Sadly, folks like these while common. Aren't as common as they once were.
 
Daaaaaaaaaaamn...I just realized that I know at which station that occurred. I used to take that train between the two Columbia University campuses (the health sciences campus is uptown at Broadway and West 168th St, the main campus is at Broadway and West 116th St) when I was in grad school.
 
I thought about what I would do in his shoes when I read the story. I don't think I could bring myself to jump under a train with about two inches clearance to save a stranger. This man had two Daughters to support and a long life ahead of him but he jumped to what seemed like a sure death. That is true courage that most of us don't have in us, that's the sort of hero who jumps on a grenade to save others.
 
LOL, yes. I saw him on Letterman last night, pretty down to Earth guy, right time at the right place. He'd make a good medic.
 
I hope he gets whatever he wants and he should be rewarded for his courage.

Once again, military training may have saved ones life.
 
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