A woman who fainted onto the 4/5 tracks at the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall station was crushed by an oncoming train yesterday afternoon. The 39 year-old Brooklyn woman, Joan Olaizola, fainted but then came to and tried to lift herself out of the tracks. But the arriving train was unable to stop in time, dragging her body 10 feet before stopping. Another person waiting on the platform said, "She was trying to grab at the yellow dots on the platform to pull herself up but the train came in on an angle and just hit her. Half of her stayed on top and half of her was on the bottom. She was crushed between the train and the wall." It does not seem that other commuters noticed her at the end of the subway platform or when she fell into the tracks, only when she was dragged by the train.
Yikes. Again, while it's natural to want to look down the tracks to see if there's a train, it's not necessary to stand that close to the edge. NYCSubway.org has more information on the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall stop. This scenario reminds Gothamist of the Homicide episode, Subway, with Vincent D'Onofrio as the victim of a subway shoving, where he is dragged by the train while stuck in between two train cars. And other stories of subway shovings.
