Navy Veteran Saves Young Man on Subway Tracks

Wow...amazing.

Via clickondetroit.com -

NEW YORK -- A New York man is being hailed as a hero after saving a teenager who fell on subway tracks Wednesday.The man's daily commute turned into a brush with death as he daringly rescued the teen in Harlem, authorities said.

Cameron Hollopeter, 18, fell onto the tracks at the 137th Street and Broadway Station after apparently suffering a seizure, according to authorities.

Wesley Autrey, a Navy veteran and construction worker, was standing nearby on the platform with his children when he saw Hollowpeter fall. Autrey jumped down to the track area and lay on top of Hollowpeter as a train passed about "2 inches" from his head.

In the split-second he had to decide as a southbound 1 train approached, Autrey said he chose to stay in the "gutter" between two sets of subway tracks instead of trying to pull the victim back up to the platform."

I chose to dive on top of him and pin him down and myself down," said Autrey, 50.

Autrey said the rescue was especially difficult because Hollopeter was confused and frightened."

He didn't know who I was," said Autrey. "He was incoherent. The train comes and I have to make the decision whether to struggle and try to get him up to the platform or dive for the gutter and just push him back. So my thing was to just push him back and lay on top of him."

When asked if the bottom of the train touched the top of his head, Autrey said, "It could have." Autrey said the train operator saw them and hit the emergency brakes. Two of the cars passed over the men. Police said neither man was hit.

Hollopeter, a freshman at the New York Film Academy, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where he was in stable condition, authorities said. Police said Autrey refused medical attention.