Two men operating an A train in Manhattan during Friday morning’s rush are being hailed as heroes by the MTA after helping a rider survive a near-death experience after falling onto the tracks.
Train Operator Adrian Caddle and Conductor Troy Patterson were working the 7:29 a.m. A train from 207th Street in Manhattan to Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway when they say they noticed an unwell straphanger getting dangerously close to the edge of the platform at the West 4th Street station.
Caddle began to slow the train, but then applied the brakes when he saw the man, in his late 50s to early 60s, collapse onto the bed of the tracks, injuring his legs in the fall.
“I walked to the edge of platform where the passenger was on the roadbed. He was trying to get up and I told him ‘don’t get up’ in case he was injured or anything. I didn’t want him to stumble and come into contact with the third rail,” Caddle said in an interview with amNewYork Metro.
Caddle was able to stop the train about 40 feet from where the man lay on the roadbed, or about a third of the way through the station. Caddle and Patterson then worked able to lift the man onto the edge of the platform with the help of commuters at the edge of the platform.
“He seemed frantic about something, anything about going to the hospital he didn’t want to be involved in,” Patterson said. “My first instinct was to get him to safety … When I descended into the road bed, I looked into his face, he was sweaty and real nervous. It was after we got him to the platform and I got a chance to get a good look at him that he appeared that – I wouldn’t say that he was under the influence – maybe he was sick. But he was flush … He looked almost like he had seen a ghost.”
Patterson has seen his share of emergency situations in the transit system.
In 2019, Patterson helped put out the flames on a Manhattan bound train that had been set ablaze by a passenger in Far Rockaway.
“We’ve come to expect NYC Transit employees to courageously help the New Yorkers they serve,” interim New York City Transit President Sarah Feinberg said. “In this instance an alert train operator first managed to stop his train short of what could have been a tragic impact, then joined the conductor in rescuing a customer from tracks. We are proud of their heroism and applaud their dedication.”
See the video of the rescue, captured by a Citizen user at the scene here.
MTA Workers Rescued Man From Train Tracks @CitizenApp
W 4 St – Wash Sq Station Oct 30 8:04:47 AM EDT
