Saved by the quick action of Rafael Concepcion, right, a subway passenger who jumped to the rescue from the opposite side of the Union Sq. Q train platform on May 7, Domingo Andrade, left, who fell onto the tracks shortly before a train pulled into the station, is shown being helped by Transit workers who helped get him back onto the platform in time.
Subway rescue
Quick action by a Brooklyn resident waiting for a Q train at Union Sq. on Saturday night saved a man who had fallen onto the tracks shortly before a train pulled into the station.
Rafael Concepcion, 39, of Sunset Park, was waiting on the southbound platform at about 8:15 p.m. May 7 when he saw the man fall from the northbound platform onto the tracks. He jumped down, crossed two sets of tracks and called for help to get the fallen man back onto the platform. “He was too heavy to lift by myself. Then I saw the train coming and started waving my arms,” Concepcion told The Villager. The northbound train stopped about a car length from the victim, Domingo Andrade, 30, of Queens. Transit employees helped Concepcion get the victim onto the platform. Andrade was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital where he was treated for cuts and bruises.
Concepcion said he told Transit police no one had pushed the victim, who appeared to stagger and fall onto the tracks. Concepcion was taking his young son home to Brooklyn when the incident occurred. He said he was a former warehouse supervisor who was looking for a job now after having spent two years in prison for a drug conviction. “I was hanging out with the wrong crowd,” he said.
East River drama
A duffle bag found on the southbound track bed of the Manhattan Bridge by bridge workers at 8:30 p.m. Fri., May 6, caused police to stop auto and train traffic both ways until Bomb Squad officers determined that the bag was full of clothing. At about the same time, police in the Harbor Patrol pulled a 20-year-old woman from the East River near Brooklyn Bridge. It was determined that the bag of clothes belonged to her, police said. The woman was taken to Long Island University Hospital in Brooklyn where she was said to be in critical condition.
KFC bias assault
Two men told police at the Sixth Precinct that they were the victims of a bias-related beating shortly after 8 p.m. Thurs., May 5, at the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise at 333 Sixth Ave. at the intersection of W. Fourth St.
Bruce Branca, 44, told The Villager that he was denied service when he went to the counter to say that he and his partner received only half of their order. He said the woman at the counter then called out, “Tony, get these faggots out of here,” and three men described as African-American came from a table and beat them both.
Branca said the assailants fled before police arrived and the manager who appeared later was not in the store at the time of the incident.
Avenue A bike death
One of the most dangerous traffic locations in Manhattan was the scene of another fatal accident shortly before midnight on Sunday when a private carter garbage truck, whose driver was unaware of any trouble, struck and killed a woman on a bicycle.
Brandie Bailey, 21 of 260 Moore St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was pedaling south on Avenue A when the truck hit her at Houston St. at 11:58 p.m. on May 8. She was declared dead at Beth Israel Hospital.
David Daye, 30, the truck driver, who continued on his way until police flagged him down at 21st St. and Second Ave., told police that he saw no one when he passed the accident scene. Police said no summonses and no charges were made.
Bailey, who hailed from Canada, always rode her bicycle to and from her Williamsburg home and her job at the Red Bamboo Vegetarian Soul Café on W. Fourth St., friends said.
There were eight auto accidents in which pedestrians were killed on Houston St. in the seven years from 1995 to 2001 — and three of those fatal accidents were on Houston St. at Avenue A, according to a study last summer by Transportation Alternatives, a group that advocates for traffic safety.
Albert Amateau
