BY YANNIC RACK | Two men dove into the East River to rescue an injured dock worker after he was knocked into the water by a rope and metal cleat at South Street Seaport’s Pier 16 on Monday.
The end of the rope hit the 24-year-old New York Water Taxi employee when it snapped from one of the company’s boats pulling away from the dock Aug. 4. The two good Samaritans who rescued him, 18 and 54, held him afloat until two N.Y.P.D. Harbor Unit divers, Michael Guida and Patrick McGrath, pulled the three of them out, according to police.
“I saw when they got him out, his whole shirt was covered in blood,” Allison Alvarado, 20, said the next day. “He was carried out on a stretcher, with a neck brace and oxygen and everything.”
Alvarado, a Puerto Rican resident, was at the scene both days because she is visiting relatives who run a Seaport business.
Ahmed, a Pier 16 food cart owner who declined to give his last name, said Tuesday that “there were many cops, many cops. I just heard somebody fell into the water and then they brought him out a while later.”
The injured worker was transported to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition with a laceration to his chin. The two men that rescued him did not receive any injuries and refused medical attention, according to police.
“We are happy to report our employee is recovering extremely well and has had many co-workers visit at the hospital,” Jennifer Jacobs, a New York Water Taxi spokesperson, wrote in an emailed statement Tuesday.
