MTA Train Operator Hailed As Hero For Stopping Train Just Feet From Woman On Tracks
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - An MTA train operator is being hailed as a hero for averting a tragedy on the tracks.
He stopped a train just feet from a woman in its path.
"I have an unauthorized person in the roadbed on Fulton Street track 1," Eric Boyo said, recalling the dramatic start to his Monday shift.
Around 4 p.m., he was pulling a G train into the Brooklyn Fulton Street station. He says he was going around 37 m.p.h.
"You're coming in downhill, so you pick up a bit of speed, and I see someone waving their hands," Boyo said. "Then as I get closer I see there's someone on the roadbed below this person who's waving. So then I pull on the brakes really hard."
Boyo says he was a car length away from a woman on the tracks.
"My biggest concern was 'Is this person OK?'" he said.
A witness took pictures and wrote on Twitter "Literally just watched a woman try to end her life and he helped her up and was kind and gentle as one could be in that situation."
The woman refused an ambulance, but Boyo's train took her to the next stop to meet with police as a precaution, reported CBS2's Lisa Rozner.
"I'm very proud, as a fellow train operator," said Train Operators Union Chair Zachary Arcidiacono.
"His professionalism, diligence and compassion saved a woman's life," said Eric Loegel of the Transport Workers Union Local 100.
Boyo, who has been on the job for nearly three decades, says he also stopped a train in 2012 when a person was on the tracks.
As for being a hero in this case?
"We're just doing our jobs. It's true. If we're being alert and using common sense and your reflexes are good enough, this is what we do," he said.
The union says if you do see a person on the tracks and you want to alert the operator to stop the train immediately, the best thing to do is to turn on the flashlight on your phone and wave it back and forth horizontally. The union says it's a rule to stop a train immediately when you see someone waving or flashing a light.
There's still no word on who waved the train operator down.
