Boston Woman Carrying Young Son Tumbles Onto Subway Tracks
A Boston mother holding her 4-year-old son in her arms walked right off a subway platform during rush hour and fell face-first onto the tracks, landing dangerously close to the high-voltage third rail.
Two good Samaritans quickly jumped to the tracks to save her and her son before a train came through the station.
Surveillance video posted onto YouTube captured the woman as she stepped off the platform and took a shocking tumble with her small son onto the tracks Wednesday just before 6 p.m. at Cambridge's Kendall Square Station outside Boston,
Meera Thakrar, 36, from Attleboro, Mass., told an MBTA Red Line Inspector that she mistook the northbound train, which had just arrived on the platform across the tracks, for the southbound train that she was waiting for, according to the statement.
“I thought the train was right on this platform but it was on the platform," Thakrar told ABC News’ affiliate WCVB-TV. “It was real stupid of me.”
Two commuters, who were waiting for the southbound train, jumped down onto the track, scooped up the child and helped the woman back onto the platform to reach safety, all within 10 seconds of the fall.
The woman and the boy did not suffer any visible injuries, but were taken to Massachusetts General Hospital to be examined, according to a statement from MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.
Fortunately the incoming train did not arrive immediately after the fall, and the woman - and her rescuers - managed to avoid the third rail.
"The bystanders' quick response is worthy of praise, but it's also important that the public remember that the subway's third rail is electrified," Pesaturo said in the statement. "It's always best to immediately notify an MBTA employee so that we can alert nearby train crews and shut off the power to the third rail as soon as possible."
The man and woman who came to the woman's aid left the scene when the trained arrived without identifying themselves, Pesaturo told the Boston Herald, which first reported on the incident.
“Whoever saved me, thanks to him,” Thakrar told WCVB-TV. “They were there to protect us god sent them for us.”
