A Stranger Fell Onto the Subway Tracks as a Train Came In. A Dad Standing With His Two Little Girls Jumped Down

Wesley Autrey was 50 years old, a construction worker and a Navy veteran from Harlem, New York.

On January 2, 2007, around 12:45 in the afternoon, he was waiting for the train at the 137th Street station in Manhattan with his two daughters, who were 4 and 6. He was taking them home before going to work.

Nearby, a young man collapsed and started having a seizure. His name was Cameron Hollopeter. He was 20 and a film student.

Wesley and two women rushed over to help him. The seizure passed and Cameron got up, but he stumbled to the edge of the platform and fell onto the tracks.

Then Wesley saw the lights of a train coming into the station.

One of the women held his little girls back from the edge. Wesley jumped down. He tried to lift Cameron back up to the platform, but there was no time.

So he pushed Cameron into the narrow trench between the rails and lay down on top of him, holding him still.

The driver hit the emergency brakes, but the train could not stop in time. The first two cars rolled right over the two men before it finally came to a halt, with the train still on top of them. Wesley later said it came so close it left grease on his cap.

From under the train, he called out so his daughters would know their daddy was alive. People on the platform started cheering.

Cameron was taken to hospital and survived. Wesley was not hurt.

“I don’t feel like I did something spectacular,” he told The New York Times. “I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right.”

New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, gave him the Bronze Medallion, the city’s highest award for citizens. The newspapers called him the “Subway Superman.” A week later he told the whole story on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where a few big surprises were waiting for him. That is the interview you can watch here.

Would you have jumped down onto the tracks for a stranger? Tell us in the comments.