Posted on 01/03/2007 7:09:24 AM PST by rface
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(CBS/AP) A quick-thinking commuter saved a teenager who apparently suffered a seizure and fell onto subway tracks in Upper Manhattan, by jumping onto the tracks himself and pushing them both between the rails, beneath the oncoming train.
Cameron Hollopeter, 19, of Littleton, Mass., fell onto the tracks at Broadway’s 137th Street station Tuesday. Another subway passenger, 50-year-old Wesley Autrey of Manhattan, was standing on the platform with his two daughters whom he was taking home so he could go to his construction job.
When Autrey saw Hollopeter fall, he quickly took action and left his daughters to jump on the tracks to bring the man to safety as an oncoming train approached.
"I didn't want the man's body to get run over,” Autrey said. “Plus, I was with my daughters and I didn't want them to see that."
Autrey jumped down onto the tracks and initially tried to pull Hollopeter up to the platform but had to decide whether he could get him up in time to avoid both of them getting hit.
"I was trying to pull him up, but his weight [was too much] plus he was fighting against me — he didn't know who I was,” Autrey told CBS station WCBS-TV.
Autrey said the man was still moving violently from the seizure, so he pulled him into the center of the tracks — away from the high-voltage third rail — and laid on top of him. "The only thing that popped up in my mind was, 'OK, well, go for the gutter,'" Autrey said. "So I dove in, I pinned him down and once the first car ran over us, my thing with him was to keep him still."
The subway trough between the rails, which is used for drainage, 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 saw someone on the tracks and put the emergency brakes on. Two cars of the train passed over the men — with about 2 inches to spare, Autrey said — before it came to a stop.
Autrey's daughters thought the train had killed their father and the teen, but were relieved to hear their father shout up from under the train that the two were fine.
Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy, was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition with only minor injuries.
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."
Onlooker Patricia Brown said Autrey, a Vietnam War veteran, "needs to be recognized as a hero." Others cheered him and hugged him outside the train station.
The incident took place around 12:45 p.m. Service on the line, which runs between the southern tip of Manhattan and the Bronx, was suspended for about 45 minutes.
Right on the cusp of eligibility at any rate.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1759768/posts
I like this one especially because he looks very like my grandson.
Bush should put this brave vet in as Secretary of Defense, instead of the pussy Gates. This is a real man, a real hero. On second thought, better not to corrupt him.
If he is about to turn 51 he could have been 18 in Vietnam.
Assuming he is 50 years and 364 days old, it is possible he could have been a 17 year old volunteer in 1973 - but the number of such individuals is very small, and the likelihood of someone signing up in '73, completing basic training and being deployed to Vietnam in mid '73 is very, very small.
Now that's bravery! God bless him. Great story.
What a wonderful story, and a great way to get me started on the day! Mr. Autrey is a hero.
Thanks for posting.
Assuming he hasn't had his 2007 birthday yet, then he was born in 1956, which would make him 17 in 1973, eligible for duty during the last year of the war. However, whether he's embellishing his resume or not, he's still a stud.
Good story to start the day.
My best guess is that he is "in his 50's" and the news people just rounded it.
I thought at first he had pulled the man to the side or something. Man...He's a quick thinker. Unbelievable.
Lying about being a combat veteran is not acceptable regardless of circumstances.
Of course, the paper may just be wrong about his age.
Again, he almost committed suicide - only sheer luck saved him from certain death, not any skills or resourcefulness on his part.
He also abandoned his two little daughters on a subway platform - unthinkable.
Those little girls were his primary concern and they came very close to being fatherless.
Thank God everything worked out OK.
in the Army, you COULD NOT go to Vietnam until you were 18 years old.....(but parental consent enlistments at age 17 were permitted). I don't know about the other services....
Wow, what an amazing story! What a heroic man! Unbelievable. And I teared up a little, too.
All New Yorkers know that at one time or another a subway track worker has narrowly avoided death by ducking into the groove and all New Yorkers know that at one time or another passengers have died by brushing against the third rail.
He did the only thing he really could do in the circumstances. He was out of options.
my first thought is how he could leave his kids alone. They could have been put in danger, following the dad. On the other hand, in that situation he did not think and acted. Status HERO........
Just nit-picking here: some American marines and embassy staff were in VN until 1975; I'm guessing he isn't lying. Perhaps the paper is rounding down his age. Yes, he is brave and lucky.
He didn't leave his kids alone. He entrusted them to a nearby woman whom he may or may not have known.
We are only three days into 2007, so he was probably 50 years old in 2006, which would have meant he was 18 y/o in 1974.
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