An Everyday Hero

[Annie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/n...&en=8ed5fe0a88df5986&ei=5094&partner=homepage

January 3, 2007
A Man Down, a Train Arriving, and a Stranger Makes a Choice
By CARA BUCKLEY

It was every subway rider’s nightmare, times two.

Who 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.

...

 

[90K]

Amen what an awesome call that man made.

 

[Annie]

Amen what an awesome call that man made.

I think that's most definately one of those moments, you don't know what you'd do unless you are there.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Wow! Imagine being witness!

 

[Dirt McGirt]

It's all over the MSM and deservingly so. It made me think about whether I could do something like that while my kids were with me and I had to be honest with myself, I couldn't. Reading about this guy's heroics and how he'd risk his life for a complete stranger is just humbling and beyond words. I hope Bloomberg gives him a nice ceremony and a shiny medal.