Man Is Rescued by Stranger on Subway Tracks
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By CARA BUCKLEY
Published: January 3, 2007
It was every subway rider’s nightmare, times two.

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Tina Fineberg for The New York Times
Wesley Autrey.

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Would you jump onto the subway tracks to save a stranger?

Post a CommentWho has ridden along New York’s 656 miles of subway lines and not wondered: “What if I fell to the tracks as a train came in? What would I do?”

And who has not thought: “What if someone else fell? Would I jump to the rescue?”

Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker and Navy veteran, faced both those questions in a flashing instant yesterday, and got his answers almost as quickly.

Mr. Autrey was waiting for the downtown local at 137th Street and Broadway in Manhattan around 12:45 p.m. He was taking his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6, home before work.

Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. Mr. Autrey and two women rushed to help, he said. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, 20, managed to get up, but then stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails.

The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said.

So he made one, and leapt.

Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time.

Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause.

Power was cut, and workers got them out. Mr. Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy, was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He had only bumps and bruises, said his grandfather, Jeff Friedman. The police said it appeared that Mr. Hollopeter had suffered a seizure.

Mr. Autrey refused medical help, because, he said, nothing was wrong. He did visit Mr. Hollopeter in the hospital before heading to his night shift. “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”

reading that made me feel really claustrophobic, being trapped somewhere with no space to move it'd be really difficult not to panic

NYC subway savior showered with gifts


By VERENA DOBNIK Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

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NEW YORK — A man's daring rescue of a teen who fell on the subway tracks earned him the unique title "the hero of Harlem" on Thursday, plus $10,000 from Donald Trump and a trip to Disney World.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg bestowed the title upon Wesley Autrey as he presented him with the city's highest award for civic achievement, calling the 50-year-old construction worker "a great man _ a man who makes us all proud to be New Yorkers."

Past recipients of the Bronze Medallion have included Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and Willie Mays. The last honoree was Housing Authority employee Felix Vasquez, who caught a baby thrown from a burning building in 2005.

On Tuesday, Autrey saw Cameron Hollopeter, a 19-year-old film student, suffering a seizure while waiting for a train. After stumbling down the platform, Hollopeter, of Littleton, Mass., fell onto the tracks with a train on its way into the station.

Autrey, traveling with his two young daughters, said something needed to be done and he thought: "I'm the only one to do it."

He jumped down to the tracks, a few feet below platform level, and rolled with the young man into a drainage trough between the rails as the southbound No. 1 train came into the 137th Street/City College station.

Some train cars passed over Autrey and Hollopeter with only a couple of inches to spare, but neither man suffered any harm from the incident. Hollopeter, hospitalized for his medical condition, was in stable condition Thursday.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director Elliot Sander called Autrey's action "a death-defying act of bravery. We truly have not seen anything like this. ... He was at the right place at the right time and did the right thing."

After the City Hall ceremony, a limousine whisked Autrey _ who also received a year's worth of free subway rides _ to a meeting with Trump, who presented him with $10,000.

He also has received $2,500 from the New York Film Academy to start a scholarship fund for his children, and tickets and a backstage tour to the Broadway musical "The Lion King."

Autrey, who did the morning news show circuit on Thursday and taped a David Letterman appearance later in the day, will be flown to Los Angeles for an appearance next week on Ellen DeGeneres' show.

As for his new celebrity, he concluded, "good things happen when you do good."

I heard this earlier today. Starfish, you're a little slow on the take, eh?

I think it's a excellent story. Selfless people are really a true wonder to the world. Good for them both.

yah 5 hours is turtle slow, rabbit

That's just plain dialup. Get with it.

calling my dsl carrier RIGHT NOW

This is one of those few news stories I read that made me feel better about the world, not worse...

I heard about this a few days ago.
It's nice to hear that there are people like that in the world.

yah warm and fuzzy , how townsend?

Home » World » Article
New York's week for split-second heroes
Email Print Normal font Large font Mark Coultan Herald Correspondent in New York and agencies
January 6, 2007


Wesley Autrey … saved a life and went to work.
Photo: AP

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Saved on the subway
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AdvertisementTHE two men first spied the baby from across the street, dangling from a fourth-storey fire escape. With the baby's grip growing weaker, there was only one choice: to try to catch him.

The men positioned themselves below, arms out. The little boy fell, glancing off a tree-branch. Then he bounced off the chest of one man, who was knocked off balance and could not grab him. The other rescuer held tight.

And so on Thursday, the two men, Julio Gonzalez, 43 and Pedro Nevarez, 40 - longtime friends who had been inspecting a used Honda - became the second and third Good Samaritans of 2007.

The rescue came two days after another New Yorker, Wesley Autrey, flung himself onto subway tracks to save a 20-year-old who had fallen off the platform.

As Raymond Kelly, the New York Police Commissioner, said: "This is the week of heroes here in New York."

The baby, Timothy Addo, 3, had been in his babysitter's apartment before crawling onto a radiator and from there onto the fire escape. "I'm not a hero," Mr Nevarez said. "I did what any other father would do. When you're a father, you would do this whether it's your child or not."

Two days earlier, Mr Autrey was standing at the 137th Street subway station with his two daughters when he noticed a man having a fit. Mr Autrey put a pen in the man's mouth to keep him from swallowing his tongue. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, a film student, recovered enough to get to his feet, but then staggered and fell backwards onto the tracks.

Not only was a train approaching, but the New York subway uses a third rail, which contains 600 volts of electricity.

"I had a split-second decision to make," Mr Autrey said later. "Do I let the train run him over and hear my daughters screaming and see the blood? Or do I jump in?"

He jumped, holding Mr Hollopeter down between the tracks as the screeching train ran over them.

Several cars passed by before the driver could stop the train.

"'Am I dead?' Mr Hollopeter asked. 'Am I dead?"'

"I said, 'No, we're under the train'," Mr Autrey said.

He yelled to the people on the platform that they were OK and they applauded.

And like a true hero, he went on his way to his construction job, converting three classrooms into a library at a public school known as John Wayne School.

This week, Mr Autrey has been the toast of the city. The New York Post called him Subway Superman, while Michael Daly, a columnist for the Daily News, suggested they should rename the John Wayne school "after a real hero".

Mr Autrey is being feted by talk shows, and showered with praise. The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, formally congratulated him. The New York Film Academy, where Mr Hollopeter is a student, gave him $US5000 ($6300) plus scholarships for his two children. Even Donald Trump chipped in with a cheque for $US10,000.

fuckin horrible.
where do you go (if youre of high school age)?

nope done. forest hillz tho. was spoiled and rich not anymore

forest hills is the place to be these days.