LIRR Workers Make Precarious Rescue From Brooklyn Subway Tracks

BROOKLYN, NY — Five Long Island Rail Road workers have been honored by the MTA for rescuing a man who fell on the Brooklyn subway tracks Wednesday, his foot stuck dangerously close to the electrified third rail.

Larry Woods, Gregory Hartley, Kevin Rattigan, Stacy Augustine and Shelwyn Hendy were getting ready to start their day working for a general contractor at the East New York station around 7 a.m. when they first noticed a straphanger had fallen onto the LIRR tracks, the employees said.

"[He was] laying draped across the third-rail protection board — it was a pretty scary situation," explained Hartley, who said he heard a loud thud before spotting the man.

"At any moment he could have been electrocuted. A train could be coming through at any moment."

Hartley and Hendy, who had been walking on the southern platform, quickly got the attention of Woods, Rattigan and Augustine, who were on the northside.

The employees radioed to put a "block" on any trains that were coming through, and sent Rattigan and Augustine to either side of the track to act as a lookout.

Meanwhile, Hartley, Hendy and Woods hopped down onto the tracks to help the man, whose foot was stuck between two rails.

Woods untied the man's shoes and was able to help him slip his foot out while Hendy kept him calm, the employees said.

"It couldn’t have gone any better than if we had practiced this," Woods said. "I was very nervous that he was going to touch that rail."

Soon, emergency responders arrived and got the man onto the platform. He was uninjured and able to go home without any medical treatment, MTA staff said.

The transit officials would later find out that an equipment train, which doesn't follow regular MTA schedules, had been minutes away from barreling through the station.

"These five brave men jumped up like it was nothing and they put their own lives on the line," SMART Union Chairman Anthony Simon said. "[The man] could have died, and they saved him."

Watch the workers full story of what happened here: