New York Teenager Celebrating 18th Birthday Struck and Killed Crossing Subway Tracks
Early Tuesday evening, a teenager celebrating his 18th birthday was hit and killed by subway train on Manhattan's Upper West Side as he and his two friends attempted to cross the tracks. One friend made it across while the other still hadn't left the other platform. According to the New York Daily News, both surviving teens saw the train hit their friend, their knees buckling at the sight.
Witnesses described a gruesome scene.
"He got smacked by a 2 express train," said Bronx resident Anthony Escobar, 36. "He got fried and mangled."
…"I heard the conductor yell, like give out a scream or a moan," said John D'Alessandro, who was in the first car of the train.
The subway came to a screeching halt and lost its power. Panicked passengers waited anxiously in the dark for more than an hour, as cops and firefighters tried to salvage the victim's body.
"I saw the arms, blood on the hands," said Leola Browder, 28. "Some people were upset and scared. Others were more worried about going where they had to go."
NBC New York reports the teen and his friends, all from Long Island, were on their way back to Penn Station when they realized they were on the wrong platform. Instead of walking up the stairs to the other side, the teenagers attempted to cross the tracks, ignoring the shouts from other straphangers. At that same time a northbound 2 train was entering the station. The motorman spotted the teenagers and tried to slow the train, but by that time it was too late; the train clipped the 18 year old, who died at the scene.
