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As Spotted on the Subway NYC

The Day a Woman Jumped in Front of a Train

Photo Credit: Peter Ehrlich, nycsubway.org

Last Wednesday was a day like any other as I joined the evening rush hour throngs on a subway platform, attempting to squeeze my way onto a very crowded downtown 2 express train. Having found a minuscule amount of personal space in the back half of the train, that familiar chime came across the speaker and the doors closed. As usual, the train raced down Broadway, passing local stops at lightening speed. But as we began to enter the bustling Times Square/42nd Street station, the train came to abrupt halt.

Trains stopping in mid-tunnel is not a terribly uncommon occurrence in the aging NYC subway system. Usually it’s a few minutes, there’s a reassuring announcement (usually something along the lines of being delayed either by the train dispatcher or by train traffic ahead) and then we’re off and moving again. But not this time. We sat and sat for approximately 20 minutes before an announcement rang through the car.

The jumbled voice of the conductor came across the loudspeaker though he was extremely difficult to understand amongst the crowds in my car. It seemed that the train had only pulled about halfway into the station and for some inexplicable reason could not go any further. Instead, the train was out of service and the conductor would be coming through the back half of the train to escort the passengers off.

It was now clear that something was very wrong and rumors began to fly about amongst the passengers. Some thought they heard that the conductor would be walking us through the tunnel to the platform. Others tried, unsuccessfully, to make their way towards to front of the train. Someone mentioned that they thought the train may have hit someone. As we waited, the crowd slowly began filing off through the one door on the back half of the train that had just barely reached the platform edge.

There was a flurry of police activity on the platform. As I walked towards the front of the train, I suddenly hit a point were the police stood guard, ensuring that folks could not continue further down the platform. As I asked some of the mortified looking passengers who had been waiting for my train what had happened, I got an explanation.

A woman had thrown herself in front of the train on the opposite track in an apparent suicide attempt. The train operator had applied the emergency brakes but was not able to stop before hitting the woman, who apparently survived and, at last word, is still in critical condition. I looked across the tracks and saw the uptown 2 train that had hit her, stopped just before the point where my train had stopped. Meanwhile, the NYPD was doing a very good job of ensuring that bystanders could not see any of the gruesomeness happening on the opposite track.

Rather shaken by the whole affair, I wasn’t about to wait around to try and see them removing the woman’s body, so I made my way over the N-Q-R trains to continue my journey. As I waited on that platform, my mind was spinning yet I could not escape what had just happened. It certainly did not help that announcements kept booming over the loudspeakers…”Due to a police investigation at Times Square/42nd Street, uptown 2 and 3 trains are running on the local track.” “Police investigation,” is that what they call it when someone tries to kill themselves?

Photo Credit: PlusMinus, Wikipedia

As the Q train arrived, I took a deep breath and stepped on board. Settling down into a seat, I remembered what all those fancy new metro systems I saw all over Asia had that we don’t have….platform screen doors that open when the train arrives arrives. That simple (and I’m sure far too costly for the MTA) solution could save the approximately 90 people who are struck by NYC subways each year, including those that find it wise to jump onto the tracks to retreive their personal belongings, only to find themselves face to face with a subway train.

On my way back uptown, I very purposely did not want to go to Times Square and stand on that platform where it had all happened. Instead, I boarded a 3 train at 34th Street/Penn Station. And as we passed through Times Square, a mere hour and a half after my earlier train had ground to a halt, there wasn’t a sign left that anything out of the ordinary had happened. It was a distinct moment of the true New York mentality: Go on with your life. Nothing to see here.

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By Aaron

Hey there! I'm Aaron and this is my travel site, where I document my adventures to all corners of the world. My love for travel started at the ripe old age of four, when a midlife crisis uprooted my family to Ecuador for five years. Since then, I've been to countries on 4 different continents. When I'm not blissfully on the road, I reside in New York City, where I become the ultimate travel junkie and spend my days dreaming up my next great adventure! Read More...

8 replies on “The Day a Woman Jumped in Front of a Train”

OMG…what a crazy experience! I can’t believe that she survived. Must have been intense for you to have been there during all of that. And sad that it was, in a sense, a NY moment that was soon forgotten… A gruesome tale, indeed.

Fortunately I didn’t see it actually happen. The people on the platform were mortified…

As they say, one of those New York moments…

I don’t pretend to know what’s going through the head of a person trying to commit suicide. I can tell you though that concern about other human beings, not least of all innocent subway/bus/train/car/truck operators, is the last on their mind. It’s one thing to decide to take one’s own life, but it’s entirely different to traumatize hundreds of people that have nothing to do with that decision and no means to influence it. I wish there was a way to posthumously punish suicide attempts like this in such a manner as to discourage future similar actions.

The first law of suicide: Every body weighs just enough to put an end to itself. Rope is quick and cheap.

Subway barriers? Maybe they’ll do some good, but spending that money on education and mental health would do much better.

I had a similar discussion with a lot of people I knew after the incident. Yes, suicide is an amazingly selfish act and when you’re in that mentality, I imagine you probably could care less what anyone else thought. Maybe it’s that the subway is right there…it’s accessible. You don’t have to do much other than step off a platform (whereas you’d have to go buy a rope). Of course, the woman in this incident survived… Last I read she had to have an arm amputated (there have since been no more news updates about the incident). Can you imagine trying to live your life after something like that which would have such a profound affect on your physical condition?

I agree on the mental health and education, though subway barriers would also help keep the rats off the platform… 🙂

It’s sad people try to take their lives, but i’m glad she survived somehow, since the chances to still be alive after being hit by a train are… well, until now i thought they were null.
I can somehow understand how you must have felt, i once witnessed a similiar incident with a drowning. A kid threw himself of a bridge. I don’t know if he survived, but i doubt it because the current was really strong and the water was deep.

The train was entering the station so it was slowing down to stop. Though, I can only imagine that after being struck by a train, one’s life must be very difficult…

That’s awful that you witnessed someone throwing themselves off a bridge! I was fortunate enough to not actually see the woman throwing herself in front of the train…

Thank you for your concern. I had serious problems after that incident, but it got better with time. You were indeed fortunate.

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