3 bystanders save man who falls on subway tracks
The subway was only one minute away when the trio hopped on the tracks and hoisted the man to safety
By Pedro Oliveira Jr.
New York Post
NEW YORK — Three selfless subway heroes jumped onto the tracks of a Manhattan station when an incapacitated stranger fell yesterday - and miraculously hoisted the passed-out 20-something back to the platform before the next No. 1 train rushed in.
The Columbus Circle station was packed with bar-closing straphangers at about 2:40 a.m. when a man in his 20s, who appeared to be drunk, stumbled from the platform onto the tracks, and fell unconscious, hitting his head on the rail.
With the next train slated to arrive in two minutes, Garrett O'Hanlon, 22, jumped onto the tracks.
"I couldn't watch a man die. It was such a rush, it happened so quickly - I just had to react," said O'Hanlon, a cadet third class at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. "He was unconscious, he was bleeding, and I couldn't lift him up by myself."
Seeing O'Hanlon's struggle, Dennis Codrington Jr., 23, jumped in.
"The guy was pretty heavy and the train was coming," said Codrington, of Washington Heights, a personal trainer at the Equinox in the Upper West Side.
A friend of Codrington's - Matt Foley, 23, an unemployed automotive technician from Poughkeepsie - also sprung into action.
"The train was one minute away," Foley said. "Once you're down there, you've got to make moves. "
But as they tried to hoist the stocky man up, the three realized they couldn't lift him entirely over the platform.
The clock announced less than one minute for the next uptown train to arrive.
"I don't know if the train got a notification, I wasn't even paying attention," said O'Hanlon,. "It was coming toward us but when we were down there, there was only one objective - to get this guy out."
Other straphangers started to pull the man up and got him over the edge. O'Hanlon managed to jump up but Codrington and Foley needed a lift.
First responders rushed the unconscious man to New York-Presbyterian's Weill Cornell Medical Center.
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