Conductor Who Saved Boy From Subway Tracks Named Brooklyn Hero

DOWNTOWN, BROOKLYN — When subway conductor Hopetin Kiffin first stopped his 5 train to help a 13-year-old boy who had climbed onto the subway tracks, he said it felt like he was just doing his job.

Kiffin, who brought the boy onto his train and returned him to safety, said it was only in reflecting on the experience after that he started to think maybe he was meant to be there that day. He realized, Kiffin said, that it was really only because his sister had convinced him to apply for a job with the MTA 17 years ago that he was there to help.

"God sends people to do his work and my sister was the person who was responsible through God for being the reason I got this job and trickle down for Him to put me there to see the youth," Kiffin told a crowd at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Wednesday.

The subway conductor was one of four "Heroes of the Month" honored by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams this week.

Kiffin was given the April award for saving the 13-year-old on April 4 as his train pulled in to the Hoyt Street local 2/3 station.

That morning, the boy was on his way to school when he climbed don on the roadbed and was standing near the third rail between the local and express tracks. Officials said that the boy has autism and had been suffering from depression.

Kiffin was pulling his 5 train into the station at about 15 mph when he spotted the boy by the flash of his red jacket and noticed a commuter on the platform pointing toward the tracks.

The conductor said that in that moment he thought of his own 8-year-old daughter, and his MTA training to remain calm in difficult situations. He hopped down onto the tracks and brought the 6th grader onto his train, where he was taken tot he next stop and brought back to his family with the help of police.

"He realized that passengers feed off his energy and he showed the energy passengers needed to not allow that young child to be the victim of some form of train tragedy," Adams said. "We really want to thank Hopeton Kiffin for doing his job and for going beyond the call of duty."

Adams also honored heroes for March and May at the ceremony. March's winners were State Trooper Joshua Kaye and Jacob Abraham, who both stopped a man from jumping off the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and Obocho Peters, a 10-year-old from East Flatbush who started his own thrift store company to help low-income families.