Nov. 11, 2009

Subway Saviors Share Story

Two Boston Transit Workers Describe Frantic Scene After Woman Fell on Tracks with Train Coming

  • Boston subway stops in nick of time, just before running over a woman. Boston Police said Friday the was drunk when she fell onto the tracks.

    Boston subway stops in nick of time, just before running over a woman. Boston Police said Friday the was drunk when she fell onto the tracks.  (CBS)

(CBS)  Two Boston transit workers are being hailed as heroes after an incident last Friday night when a woman police say appeared to be drunk fell onto the tracks as a train approached.

Jackie Osorio, a train inspector for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, saw the woman on the tracks and immediately got on the radio and told the driver of the speeding train to stop.

Her quick call came in the nick of time.

Osorio and Charice Lewis, the train's operator, appeared on "The Early Show" and described the frantic scene on the subway platform.

Lewis said she could see several people in the distance on the platform, waving at the train. She said that, because people were across the yellow line -- an area cordoned off for safety's sake -- "common sense" kicked in and she began to slow down just in case someone was on the tracks.

"Then the woman moved," Lewis said, "which made me notice she was in there and that the passengers were pointing in there, and I just emergency braked and the train stopped just in time."

Osorio called the scene "horrific." She noted that one man at the end of the platform turned away from the woman on the tracks at the last moment when it looked like the train was upon her.

"It was a crazy situation," Osorio said. "... I honestly thought it was going to end badly. The train as it approached was coming in a little slower than usual, but with these trains you never know what's going to happen."

Lewis said she also expected a bad picture.

"All I saw was the train go over her body," she said. "I was just like, 'Oh, my God. This is going to be so bad.'"

The train stopped halfway over the woman's body. She was rescued without injury.

For more with Osorio and Lewis, click on the video below.


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by Cas2dy November 11, 2009 10:43 AM EST
Wow...that lady was really falling down drunk! She couldn't even stand up AFTER she got out from under the train. That might sober up some, but not her. My Grandma used to always tell us girls not to try to drink like the guys cuz people look at a falling down drunk woman a lot differently than they do a pissing down his leg drunk man. A guy will still have respect the next day when he's walking down the street on his way to work, but a woman's reputation is stained forver.
I hope the lady this happened to sees this video over and over again and gets some serious help before it's too late. I know she can do it, because I once was her, after not taking Grandma's advice. She needs to get clean and then use this footage as a means of tesitomny in helping others get clean too. I wish her the best and God bless her.
BIG KUDOS to those transit employees for being so alert and for their ability to get the job done.
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by jewelry58 November 11, 2009 1:51 PM EST
Has it been established that the woman was drunk? My brother was once questioned by a police officer because he also was stumbling. As it turns out, my brother doesn't drink. He has epilepsy and was been given a dosage of anti-convulsive medicine too high for his body weight. It caused him to become toxic, slurring his words and being off balance .... just like the poor woman in the video.

Thank God those employees saved this woman's life.

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