I think it happens more often with buses. People are running across the street, or they get pushed or whatever. And bus drivers are just bitter, so they don't slow down.

I knew joanie very well, I often watched her daughter for her. Someone/or many someone's were defenitly watching her staggering around, due to her being sedated on her new medication. I know how people are, they were watching like it was a show and then she fell, and to no suprise of mine watched as she tried desperatly to save her own life. Shock or whatever the bystanders are calling it to help themselves sleep better at night is Bullshit!! You see someone clawing at the train ledge to save their life, you don't think, you act, you grab them and pull them up or if you think you may be pulled in, you scream for a man to pull her up. She was not a big woman, any man could have pulled her up with one arm!! Hell, you see someone staggering near a train platform, ask if they need to sit down or need help. Or call for help, then maybe you could live with yourself, I know her little girl has to now live the rest of her life without her Mother. I knew New Yorkers were selfish Bastards, biut this is really too much!!

Ditto sheila's remarks - from reports it seems that she was pretty far away from other people, and people didn't realize that she had even fallen in.

Its been said in one news account that bystanders were not close enough to where the woman fell to get to her in time. Close enough to see but not help. I don't think it's "Kitty G. all over again". Which was, by some accounts, sensationalized to play up 'urban callousness'.

With all the iPods/MP3s everyone's plugged into, is it any wonder we're not aware of what's going on around us (myself included)....

PS. "Slackjaw" is a great book.

How about this: take note of the direction the train would come from, and wait for the train where the front would stop. If you fall on the tracks, you'd only have to walk a few feet ahead into the tunnel; the train wouldn't hit you because it would have normally stopped there anway. You could then find your way to the worker access ladder to climb back up.

this is seriously one of my greatest fears. in boston, i think there are actually places you could crawl into if you had to. i'm always thinking about where i'm going to crawl if some crazy person pushes me in.

This is barbaric. Of course I would reach my hand to pull someone up who has fallen. I wouldn't assume anyone else would do it. I just can't imagine what that woman went through. Maybe the idea of building electric gates to put on the edge of the platform is something the government should think about. Or there should be like, cubby holes indented on the sides of the tracks for emergencies.

And one more thing: what the hell is wrong with the witness who said the woman was trying to get a hold of the yellow dots or whatever? Why didn't she/he try to help that woman. Asshole.

I got on the downtown 6 train at 33rd yesterday, and the train didn't start moving. After a few minutes the conductor said something like "this is a real delay" and that we'd be better off taking another train.

What a horrible accident.

it's called the bystander effect. basically one simply assumes someone else is going to help the person in need. not only that, as the number of bystanders goes up, the likelihood of someone helping the person goes down.

it's easy to say, how could no one have helped that woman? but guaranteed if you were in that situation, the first thought that will come to your mind will be, "someone should help that person", and not "i need to help that person."

I remember someone else mentioning in a previous discussion of this that if you can, you should also try to get into those cubby hole spaces for the track workers. Should be beyond the third rail -- but DON'T touch the third rail.

as for people helping, again from a previous Gothamist discussion, I believe the reasoning is our fight and flight response. People don't help because they are assessing the situation and deciding whether to help or stay away from getting dragged in as well. Totally subconscious reaction and by the time we decide, it's often too late.

the typo in this post's subject is misleading - i expected to read that two or more "women" were killed. sorry to sound like a jerk, but i thought i'd point it out because i assume it's an easy fix.

I've been watching the news and from what I can gather, no one helped her up. What the fuck is wrong with people? Someone's obviously about to get killed and you fuck-heads stand by and watch? KItty Genovese all over again...

I know that these incidents always devolve into this typ of discussion, but I'm with Dirk. There was a bystander on the news who gave a blow-by-blow account of what happened in great detail. Why didn't anyone help her up? I've never, ever been in a completely empty station in NYC. And I've taken the subway at every interval possible during a day. Why are people like this? More than another death on the train tracks, I'm depressed about what savages we all are.

another fun fact:

that episode of Homicide was based on a story the writer read about that actually happening on the NYC subway years back.

Curious: I claim no expertise here -- I certainly have not tried this myself, and would not want to!

For my part, I learned this in, of all places, Jim Knipfel's autobiography, "Slackjaw", which contains an extended discussion of the safety training that the MTA offers to blind and vision-impaired NYC residents.

Take it for what it's worth.

Thanks, Doc - I've always wondered if that would work, lying down in the middle. Seemed like it'd be disgusting but somewhat less disgusting than death.

what's with the RANDOM expertise? how do you know that's the way to survive?

Ick. Once again, pass this onto your friends: If you're unlucky enough to find yourself on the tracks as a train is coming, do not try to climb out. It's higher than you think and you will not make it: at best it's a grisly death, at worst it's a set of life-long injuries that a grisley death might well be preferable to.

Instead, lie down in the center trough between the rails and make yourself as flat as possible. (Not in the space underneath the "lip" of the platform: that's another instant messy death.) You might, might escape with minor injuries and a profound need for a tetanus booster.

But ideally, stay away from the platform edge like the nice announcer is helpfully warning you.

So she fainted on the tracks and tried to get up and no one helped her??

Gruesome. I saw parts of her body on the bottom of the train, supposedly an hour after the incident. My question is why was she still there? Could they not get her out?