With train coming, subway heroes save a life
John Gearity was late for work on the morning of July 11, but he had a good excuse to give his boss. He had stopped to help save a man’s life in the subway on his way to the office.
Gearity, 21, an intern at a midtown ad agency, and another man, Richard McDonald, a 32-year-old information technology specialist, both risked their lives to help someone in need. The two men jumped onto the tracks at the R train station on Fourth Avenue and 77th Street in Bay Ridge and pulled a man to safety after the man had fallen. Gearity and McDonald saved the man’s life with no time to spear. A Manhattan-bound R train was barreling into the station.
“It wasn’t as stressful as it sounds,” Gearity, a student at the University of Delaware, said modestly. “I just focused on the guy,” McDonald said, referring to the man who had fallen onto the tracks.