May 27, 2008 10:31 pm US/Eastern
Man Run Over By Subway, Somehow Cheats Death
Unidentified 55-Year-Old In Fair Condition At Hospital Despite 3 Subway Cars Speeding Over Him
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
He was inches from death but somehow managed to save his own life.
As soon as the call came in on Tuesday afternoon, the trauma team at Bellevue Hospital was on standby expecting the worse. The man, after all, had been run over by a subway train.
When paramedics brought him in, though, it looked more like he fell down a flight of stairs.
The 55-year-old man was carried away on a stretcher Tuesday afternoon after staring death in the face and surviving. He was hustled to an ambulance bruised and scraped, after falling into the path of an oncoming F train.
Allan Stern of Long Island City was aboard.
"We were pulling into Delancey and I look out onto the platform and it looks like people are starting to yell and scream," Stern said. "About 30 seconds later, if that much, the train came to a screeching stop."
Stuck on the train for several minutes, Stern took a home video of firefighters and police officers trying to find the victim when they finally let him off the train. NYC Transit spokeswoman Marisa Baldeo confirmed Tuesday night the three lead cars passed over the man before the train managed to stop.
When they finally pulled the man out alive, Stern was amazed.
"Unbelievable; one in a million, right?" Stern said. "How many times do you hear of someone getting run over or falling down on the tracks and surviving when a train comes in?"
It's a survival story reminiscent of Wesley Autrey's heroics last year when he helped another man survive a similar encounter with an approaching subway train. Autrey's feat, however, was a calculated risk that worked out. What happened Tuesday appears to be sheer luck.
The man's identity has not yet been released. He was been taken to Bellevue and is in fair condition.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
