Tweet
Talk about heroic. 
Link*****- http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles...00010000000001
Commuter Saves Man on Subway Tracks
By DEEPTI HAJELA
AP
NEW YORK (Jan. 3) - Trying to rescue a teenager from a subway track as a train roared in, Wesley Autrey faced a harrowing choice: Try to pull the young man to the platform, or push him down and hope to find a safe harbor between the rails.
Wesley Autrey threw himself over a man who fell on subway tracks in New York, keeping him safe between the rails.
"I tried to pull him up, but I had to make a split decision whether or not to struggle and maybe end up getting us both killed," Autrey said later. "So I just chose to dive on top of him and pin him down."
It worked. The train passed over them, saving the 19-year-old who had fallen, police said. A relative identified him as Cameron Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy.
Hollopeter's stepmother, Rachel Hollopeter, said Autrey was "an angel."
"He was so heroic," she said early Wednesday in a telephone interview. "If he wasn't there, this would be a whole different call."
The teenager had a medical problem Tuesday and tumbled onto the tracks at a station in northern Manhattan, police said.
Autrey, waiting with his two young daughters, jumped down and rolled with the young man into the trough between the rails as a southbound train came into the station.
The drainage trough is typically about 12 inches deep but can be as shallow as 8 or as deep as 24, a New York City Transit spokesman said.
The train's operator put the emergency brakes on. Before the train stopped, two cars passed over the men - with about 2 inches to spare, Autrey said.
Neither man was hit, police said. Authorities said the rescued man was in stable condition later Tuesday at a local hospital.
Autrey, 50, declined medical attention. Onlookers cheered him, hugged him and called him a hero.
"I don't feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help," he told The New York Times. "I did what I felt was right."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-01-03 09:18:25
By DEEPTI HAJELA
AP
NEW YORK (Jan. 3) - Trying to rescue a teenager from a subway track as a train roared in, Wesley Autrey faced a harrowing choice: Try to pull the young man to the platform, or push him down and hope to find a safe harbor between the rails.
Wesley Autrey threw himself over a man who fell on subway tracks in New York, keeping him safe between the rails.
"I tried to pull him up, but I had to make a split decision whether or not to struggle and maybe end up getting us both killed," Autrey said later. "So I just chose to dive on top of him and pin him down."
It worked. The train passed over them, saving the 19-year-old who had fallen, police said. A relative identified him as Cameron Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy.
Hollopeter's stepmother, Rachel Hollopeter, said Autrey was "an angel."
"He was so heroic," she said early Wednesday in a telephone interview. "If he wasn't there, this would be a whole different call."
The teenager had a medical problem Tuesday and tumbled onto the tracks at a station in northern Manhattan, police said.
Autrey, waiting with his two young daughters, jumped down and rolled with the young man into the trough between the rails as a southbound train came into the station.
The drainage trough is typically about 12 inches deep but can be as shallow as 8 or as deep as 24, a New York City Transit spokesman said.
The train's operator put the emergency brakes on. Before the train stopped, two cars passed over the men - with about 2 inches to spare, Autrey said.
Neither man was hit, police said. Authorities said the rescued man was in stable condition later Tuesday at a local hospital.
Autrey, 50, declined medical attention. Onlookers cheered him, hugged him and called him a hero.
"I don't feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help," he told The New York Times. "I did what I felt was right."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-01-03 09:18:25
)
Comment