Man Slices Through Postal Worker at Subway Station

You have to hand it to Michael Steinberg - he is a fighter. The 64 year old postal worker, who was on his way to work when a deranged man sliced through his chest with a cordless Dewalt reciprocating saw yesterday, had a punctured lung and broken rib - not to mention the whole "sliced chest" thing - yet he still gave hospital bedside interviews with newspapers and TV stations to tell his side of the story. And what a story. The Daily News has his words about the experience at the 110th and Broadway station:

I was waiting outside to put my MetroCard through. I saw a lot of ... [construction workers] running away down the platform and I saw this guy with a hacksaw, or whatever the hell it was, running toward me.

They ran away. I wasn't sure what everybody was running from. Then the guy came outside where I was standing. He looked at me and before I knew it he was attacking me.

The motor kept going on and he was trying to cut through me.

He never stopped. For two, three, four times he never stopped.

I screamed for help. "Please help! Please help me!"

The ... people [construction workers] heard me. They just looked. They never stopped to help me, and that disturbed me more than anything else. I begged for somebody to call an ambulance and to get this guy off me.

He never spoke. I think he was out of his mind...

...I was bleeding everyplace. No transit employee ever came over to me to see how I was doing. They just kept doing their job.

That's what upsets me more than anything else. There were at least six of them there, and they could have gotten him off me. It's a sad commentary on how people just don't give a damn.

At the end, when he was finished he said, "Give me your money."

Williams took $200 and credit cards and fled. The workers that Steinberg may have been referring to could have been contracted construction workers who were fixing the sound system. The MTA adds that token booth workers are supposed to stay in the booth to contact emergency workers - and the worker at 110th Street and Broadway says she was hysterical and "going out her mind" for Steinberg.

It's believed that Williams snatched two saws from the workers' tables. Witnesses said Williams, a Bronx resident, tried to attack others on the platform and was possibly holding a teddy bear. After stabbing Steinberg, Williams dumped the saws in the garbage outside an apartment building and ran off. The police apprehended him at West 93rd and Broadway, a few hours after punching a man walking his dog at West 86th and West End around 5:30AM. Williams was taken to Bellevue for observation.

And for those of you debating uptown versus midtown/downtown subway violence, in 2004, there was a woman was shot at the 42nd Street Times Square station during morning commuting hours and another man was shot at the West 18th Street station, possibly by his girlfriend's husbands.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on July 7, 2006 9:26 AM

Comments [rss]

Ursamajor

Now that you are all through with english lessons, bigotry displays, and how to identify a TWU worker, day or night, at 60 paces and contemplate their demise, perhaps we can talk about WHY NO ONE HELPED Michael Steinburg.

In 1964 a young lady named Kitty Genovese was murdered in Kew Gardens while 38 bystanders stood by and watched it happen. This shocked New York to its core and raised many questions about how all these people could have just stood by and watched this happen. In 1970, John Darley and Bibb Latane, professors of Psychology, published a study entitled "The Unresponsive Bystander: Why Doesn't He Help?" and they identifed the following traits of bystanders to events such as this attack:

They attributed the Bystander Effect to a pair of mindsets they called:

Pluralistic Ignorance (i.e., Each bystander thinks, "If no one else is helping, does this person really need help?"), and

Diffusion of Responsibility (i.e., Each bystander thinks, "Only one person needs to call the police and certainly someone else will.")

There's a great write up on this at http://www.oldkewgardens.com/kitty_genovese-012.html#fnJ-4

However in this case, none of that applies. The construction workers were apparently running away AFRAID FOR THEIR LIVES, the MTA workers are doing as they are instructed to according to their work rules. Michael, unfortunately, didn't realize what the danger was until it was too late.

While hindsight is great, human beings normally either freeze or flee when faced with great danger. This was also demonstrated in the Tenerife air disaster where, according to the survivors, people who could have escaped sat frozen in their chairs and died sitting there.

Jesus' story of the rare example of the Good Samaritan takes on a new value in the light of these types of incidents. It takes enormous presence of mind to overcome our survival instinct and actually intervene in a emergency situation.

That's why they give out medals for bravery - it's not a natural instinct; it's heroic.

Uursa

sue no sue

sure you can sue.

Just like the FDNY guy that's suing the TWU for his bicycle accident.

It was just learned the judge threw out the suit saying there was no basis for it.

just on today on NY1 bobby cuza's transit talk.

S.D.

Seamus! Such Horrible grammar! A College Grad> I'm Shocked, Shocked I say!

Seamus

Hey Matt D go fuck your-self!

HAHA!

Samantha T

"Could the workers have been sued for trying to help? I know that you can get sued for trying to help someone who's been in an auto accident."

You can get sued for anything, but that doesn't mean somebody's going to get beyond serving a complaint. NY, like most states, has a Good Samaritan law that essentially immunizes rescuers - it applies beyond physicians, EMTs, etc. That you shouldn't help/move/whatever somebody who has been hurt because of potential liability is a bit of a myth - you'd have to be grossly negligent or reckless in doing so to face any liability. I'm sure somebody will rustle up some case where a rescuer got sued successfully, but that's the exception to the rule.

Larry

Transitworkers and postal workers deserve each other

Ex-New Yorker

If the powersaw workers were private contractors, then Michael Steinberg should sue them directly for carelessness in leaving their powersaws out in the open giving crazy people access. You don't see cops leaving their guns lying around, do you?

Ex-New Yorker

The lack of action by the transit workers doesn't surprise me. This is no different from the time when Utah tourist Brian Watkins was stabbed to death in 1990 when he and his family were in town to see the U.S. Open.

During the transit strike, I was never on the side of the transit workers or the union representing them. I feel that transit workers are whiny babies who treat the public with contempt and are overpaid and get a generous benefits package.

I thought it was really careless of the transit workers who left those powersaws out for any maniac to get his hands on. The transit authority has refused to take any responsibility for their workers' irresponsible behavior.

I say the transit union should be destroyed. Michael Steinberg should sue the MTA.

Ojibot

This may sound like a silly question. But I'm genuinely curious -- Could the workers have been sued for trying to help? I know that you can get sued for trying to help someone who's been in an auto accident.

That being said, my first instinct is to help (and I have in the past) - even if it is a stupid thing to do.

grafittix

Regardless of who they work for or are affiliated with, everybody present and mentioned in this story is gonna get sued.

bklynd

In (half-hearted) defense of the contractors, I would expect Steinberg's perceptions to be quite exaggerated and distorted, due to the fact that somebody was cutting into his chest at the time. The whole ordeal must have lasted less than a minute. Who knows how the guys really reacted.

Ari

so when I commented that someone was an idiot once you banned me but you're all cool with "spit on muslims" nice Gothamist.

Interesting standards you guys have.

Brightliner

pugsley,

In point of fact, I did read the articles. The workers were repeatedly and consistently referred to as "contractors." Anybody with half a brain knows that while TWU workers have labor contracts, they are not contractors. See "empire subway worker's" reply above.

Jangler

"...another man was shot at the West 18th Street station, possibly by his girlfriend's husbands."

Jeez, how many husbands did she have?!

GeorgeC

"I saw a lot of ... [construction workers] running away..." "The ... people [construction workers] heard me."

Why are these statements editoralized out? Why did the author of the article not quote what he actually said?

Jane Minty

Regardless of who they are working for, the construction workers (electricians?) must certainly feel like heroes today.

empire subway worker

why don't you read the article?

The construction workers you see at night are usually sub-contractors of the MTA. These are the guys with the heavy equipment and tool carts and have "contractor" on their vests.

They put in a bid and won the job.

Track workers are different, these sub-contractors were installing a fixture. track workers inspect tracks and signals. They're the one's with the lanterns and hand signals.

OK, tough guy?

Aristocrat

What, no complaints about the image of the saw? Amazing.....

pugsley

Why don't you read the article Brightliner. It could well be that the workers were TWU members. Roger Tousssaint himself used to be a track worker. Seems like the Toussaint attitude to sit eating a sandwich while people are being drilled on the platform.

Margo

To the person who suggested "pushing a transit worker in front of a train.." Merely assaulting an MTA employee can land you in prison for 7 years--it's a FELONY.

Can we please remove this crap from the forum?