A 55-year-old man fell onto the subway tracks at Delancey Street yesterday just as the F train was pulling into the station – and survived by lying down in the disgusting shallow trough between the rails. The unidentified man became suddenly ill and fell onto the tracks at 1:34 p.m, but this time there was no hero to jump in and pull him out. The motorman on the incoming train hit the emergency brakes when he spotted the man, but three cars had passed over him by the time the train came to a stop.

Bystanders told Newsday that after a long, suspenseful wait, the man climbed up and out through the space between two cars with the help of police. Paramedics took him out of the station on a stretcher and took him to Bellevue hospital, where his condition is listed as “stable” and “unbelievably lucky.”

Photo courtesy Reidab.