Ballet Dancer Leaps Onto Subway Tracks and Lifts Man to Safety.

[elleng]

'After a 58-year-old man fell onto subway tracks Saturday night in Manhattan, a ballet dancer, who had just watched his wife perform with American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House, leapt down after him. With a lift that they do not teach in dance school, he moved him to safety.

“At first I waited for somebody else to jump down there,” said Gray Davis, 31, a dancer with American Ballet Theater, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “People were screaming to get help. But nobody jumped down. So I jumped down.”

Once on the tracks, at the 72nd Street Broadway-Seventh Avenue station, Mr. Davis said, he picked up the man, who was unconscious, and lifted him to the platform, where others pulled him up. Then, hearing a train in the distance and unsure which track it was on, he faced the next problem: getting back up on the platform himself.

“I never realized how high it was,” he said. “Luckily, I’m a ballet dancer, so I swung my leg up.”'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/arts/dance/ballet-dancer-gray-davis-subway-rescue.html?

[frazzled]

1. Premier danseur!

Snap ... nobody's going to make fun of ballet dancers after this. Bravo, Mr Davis.

[Xipe Totec]

2. I know the feeling

This happened to me a few years back.

A man was sitting on a bench next to me. I was working a crossword puzzle, waiting for the train. The man was uncomfortable and got up to stand by the edge of the tracks. I did not see him except at the corner of my eye. I kept working the crossword puzzle. A few seconds later I heard a loud thud. I looked up and the man was gone. Panicked faces all around. Some people started screaming for the guards to stop the train. I went to where he had been standing and saw that he had fallen on the tracks. He was stirring but disoriented. People were yelling for him to get out, but he was fazed. He got on his feet and started to pick up his stuff from the tracks. His ticket, his wallet, papers... Meanwhile, I could see the train lights approaching the station. A guard arrived and told the man to forget the stuff and get out. He called for him to reach out. As the train entered the station still going at full speed, the man finally extended his arms to us. The guard grabbed one arm and I grabbed the other and pulled as hard as we could. The man groaned from the pull, but his body came out of harms way literally two seconds before the train reached the spot where he was standing. The MBTA cleared one of the cars and put him on it to take him to the nearest hospital. I know because I could hear the conductor saying to passengers not to board the third car; that it was quarantined. As I boarded the next car, I kept looking at the soot stains on my arms and shirt to reassure myself that it really did happen, that it wasn't some day dream. Because moments later, everything returns to normal and it is as if nothing out of the ordinary ever happened.

**MBTA: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

[sharedvalues]

4. Wowo. Where was it?

Great story. Glad it ended well.

[Xipe Totec]

13. Kendall Square Redline staton, Cambridge MA

It's been a while since.

[elleng]

5. WOW!

THANK YOU!

[deurbano]

12. Yikes! Good going!

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

3. Wonderful story . . .

I've long wondered whether I'd have the courage to do what this man did in this sort of situation.

[Rollo]

6. In the SF Bay Area, there is usually a space under the platform in the BART stations...

... where one could take shelter when a train passes. I think, but then I've never tried it. But of course if you're unconscious even that would be of little help. The electrified third rail is on the other side of the tracks, so it wouldn't pose a danger. Don't know how the NYC subways are constructed, though.

I am however impressed that this guy was able to swing his leg up back onto the platform. That's some flexibility there. He should get some sort of award for saving that guy's life.

[luvMIdog]

7. This question may seem stupid , but why don't they have some sort of preventative fence in place?

And yay for the ballet dancer

[elleng]

8. A fence to prevent passengers from entering/exiting trains?

[luvMIdog]

9. like the trains at the airports where there is one door that opens in front of the spot passengers

load. I've never been to a subway plz forgive my ignorance on this topic, I'm just curious

[elleng]

10. This is pretty good picture:

[luvMIdog]

11. oh ok. I get it now. Thank you :)

[bresue]

14. Good people doing good things....

What make US so great!!!!

A stranger risking his own life for someone he doesn't know.....

[Bucky]

15. if it turns out later he did NOT pirouette in the rescue, don't post it here

These days, I need my heroes to be larger than life