by Tommy Meehan
By Ken Valenti
The Journal News • May 29, 2008
NEW YORK - Metro-North Railroad engineer Michael Maxwell couldn't be sure whether his rush-hour train struck the man who tried to scramble from the tracks when the engine bore down on him in Garrison.
Maxwell blew the horn and hit the brakes, bringing a million pounds of train to a screeching stop that took exactly 1,032 feet in the pouring rain on May 16, he said.
Several Metro-North employees rushed out to look for the man, they said yesterday at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting in Manhattan honoring the workers. Conductor William Marsden said he found the man badly wounded below the knees and screaming in the rain. He was about a train length behind the last car, just south of the station.
"He said, 'I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die,'" said Marsden, 57, of Red Hook.
With help from the employees - including those who used their shirts to bind his wounds and kept him from passing out - Thor Lundelius, a 52-year-old homeless man, did not die. He was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he remained yesterday in good condition, hospital spokesman David Billig said.
Metro-North President Peter Cannito said yesterday that Lundelius had not lost either leg, although one was in bad condition.
Cannito spoke at the board meeting where MTA Chief Executive Elliot Sander handed the employees citations for their efforts to save Lundelius and keep the passengers calm.
Honorees included Maxwell, the train engineer, conductor Timothy Boruta and assistant conductor Gaetano "Guy" Sclafani, and three employees who were off-duty and riding the train home - Marsden, conductor Jeffrey Williams of Poughkeepsie and Frank Rufino, building maintenance supervisor for Grand Central Terminal and a resident of Lagrangeville, Dutchess County.
Sander also included Fred Chidester, a supervisor who oversaw the response, when he praised the employees for their actions.
"These six men - and Fred Chidester - thought not just about themselves, but of all the people who needed their help, both on and off the train," Sander said.
Maxwell, who was driving the Hudson Line train, said Lundelius was lying alongside the track when he came around a bend at 60 mph just after 4 p.m. When he blew the horn and hit the brakes, Lundelius seemed surprised to see the train coming and tried to roll away, said Maxwell, 55, of New Windsor, Orange County.
"He tried to push away from the rail and his legs came up" and the rail shoes on the train likely grabbed the man's legs, Maxwell said. The train, weighing perhaps a million pounds with a 434,000-pound engine and six cars, was "running on a dime of rail in wet weather," he said.
When they found Lundelius, Marsden and Sclafani pulled off their shirts and the cord that held Marsden's identification around his neck, using them as tourniquets to try to stop the bleeding and cover the wounds. Sclafani said he covered one damaged leg with his railroad shirt, partly to keep Lundelius from seeing it. He and Williams kept him from passing out, Marsden said.
"I just kept assuring him that everything was going to be OK," said Sclafani, 37, of Wallkill, Orange County. "He tried constantly to see his leg and I wouldn't let him."
Boruta, 51, a resident of Germantown, Columbia County, tried to call in the accident, but his radio had hit a dead spot, so he went back to the train to make the report from there, he said. He also explained to customers that there would be a delay and fielded questions from passengers wanting to know when the train would run again.
A train passenger with an emergency medical technician's bag came and administered aid until responders arrived.
Metro-North employees said yesterday that they were surprised to find Lundelius had survived.
"You see stuff and it's not nice," Marsden said. "And it's usually someone who's not alive."
Maxwell and others also took the opportunity to remind people of the dangers of trespassing. The engineer said people shouldn't assume they know which direction trains will come and on which tracks, because that can change when needed.
After the meeting, Maxwell said, "Tell everybody: Stay the heck off the tracks."
The Journal News • May 29, 2008
NEW YORK - Metro-North Railroad engineer Michael Maxwell couldn't be sure whether his rush-hour train struck the man who tried to scramble from the tracks when the engine bore down on him in Garrison.
Maxwell blew the horn and hit the brakes, bringing a million pounds of train to a screeching stop that took exactly 1,032 feet in the pouring rain on May 16, he said.
Several Metro-North employees rushed out to look for the man, they said yesterday at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting in Manhattan honoring the workers. Conductor William Marsden said he found the man badly wounded below the knees and screaming in the rain. He was about a train length behind the last car, just south of the station.
"He said, 'I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die,'" said Marsden, 57, of Red Hook.
With help from the employees - including those who used their shirts to bind his wounds and kept him from passing out - Thor Lundelius, a 52-year-old homeless man, did not die. He was taken to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he remained yesterday in good condition, hospital spokesman David Billig said.
Metro-North President Peter Cannito said yesterday that Lundelius had not lost either leg, although one was in bad condition.
Cannito spoke at the board meeting where MTA Chief Executive Elliot Sander handed the employees citations for their efforts to save Lundelius and keep the passengers calm.
Honorees included Maxwell, the train engineer, conductor Timothy Boruta and assistant conductor Gaetano "Guy" Sclafani, and three employees who were off-duty and riding the train home - Marsden, conductor Jeffrey Williams of Poughkeepsie and Frank Rufino, building maintenance supervisor for Grand Central Terminal and a resident of Lagrangeville, Dutchess County.
Sander also included Fred Chidester, a supervisor who oversaw the response, when he praised the employees for their actions.
"These six men - and Fred Chidester - thought not just about themselves, but of all the people who needed their help, both on and off the train," Sander said.
Maxwell, who was driving the Hudson Line train, said Lundelius was lying alongside the track when he came around a bend at 60 mph just after 4 p.m. When he blew the horn and hit the brakes, Lundelius seemed surprised to see the train coming and tried to roll away, said Maxwell, 55, of New Windsor, Orange County.
"He tried to push away from the rail and his legs came up" and the rail shoes on the train likely grabbed the man's legs, Maxwell said. The train, weighing perhaps a million pounds with a 434,000-pound engine and six cars, was "running on a dime of rail in wet weather," he said.
When they found Lundelius, Marsden and Sclafani pulled off their shirts and the cord that held Marsden's identification around his neck, using them as tourniquets to try to stop the bleeding and cover the wounds. Sclafani said he covered one damaged leg with his railroad shirt, partly to keep Lundelius from seeing it. He and Williams kept him from passing out, Marsden said.
"I just kept assuring him that everything was going to be OK," said Sclafani, 37, of Wallkill, Orange County. "He tried constantly to see his leg and I wouldn't let him."
Boruta, 51, a resident of Germantown, Columbia County, tried to call in the accident, but his radio had hit a dead spot, so he went back to the train to make the report from there, he said. He also explained to customers that there would be a delay and fielded questions from passengers wanting to know when the train would run again.
A train passenger with an emergency medical technician's bag came and administered aid until responders arrived.
Metro-North employees said yesterday that they were surprised to find Lundelius had survived.
"You see stuff and it's not nice," Marsden said. "And it's usually someone who's not alive."
Maxwell and others also took the opportunity to remind people of the dangers of trespassing. The engineer said people shouldn't assume they know which direction trains will come and on which tracks, because that can change when needed.
After the meeting, Maxwell said, "Tell everybody: Stay the heck off the tracks."
