DC Subway Rescue Video Shows Unidentified Heroes Saving A Man In A Wheelchair From Death
A Washington, D.C., subway rescue video is going viral because it shows two Good Samaritans risking their lives to save a man in a wheelchair who had fallen down onto the tracks.
In a related report by the Inquisitr, another nameless hero rescued a driver from a SUV that was left hanging over a cliff after a car crash in Idaho left the driver fazed. In Miami, a Colombian immigrant saved a police officer from a hail of gunfire by swerving his van into the line of fire in order to block the bullets.
Authorities say an unidentified 54-year-old man in an automated wheelchair rolled off the subway platform and onto the tracks at the U Street Metro station. The wheelchair landed on top of the man, leaving him stuck on top of the tracks. The D.C. subway rescue video show two brave bystanders leaping down onto the track in order to lift the man and his wheelchair back to safety.
Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said the man who fell “was not in imminent danger of being struck by a train.” The nearest subway train was was three stops away, and apparently there was plenty of time to stop the trains, but the D.C. subway rescue happened so fast that train operators did not have to take any action.
That is not to say the D.C. subway rescue was not dangerous. The Metro spokesman notes the real danger was the subway’s third rail, which was active at the time of the rescue. According to ABC, Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, a group that pushes for better train service, says the best way to survive falling in front of oncoming subway training is not try and get back on the platform immediately.
“If there is clearance in the trough (between tracks), people have survived that way. And there’s also, instead of trying to get back up on the platform, if you step a couple of steps to where the girders are, between the express track, the third rail has a cover on it, so you can step on it,” Gannon said. “When people are really smoked down there, it’s when you hit a running rail and the third rail at the same time. If you’re at the end of platform from not where the train is coming in, you run toward the tunnel, past where the train would normally stop. Even in an emergency, there are stairs at the end there where you can get up.”
As of this publishing, none of the individuals involved in the Washington, D.C., subway rescue have been identified. According to the Washington Post, the man in the wheelchair was taken to a hospital with a bloody mouth, but he had no other visible injuries.
[Image via Wikimedia]
