(Newsday posted the following article by Andrew Strickler on its website on January 3.)
NEW YORK — When Wesley Autrey saw a man suffering a seizure fall onto the subway tracks, he jumped in to save the stranger.
As he tried to pull the man to safety at the Harlem stop, Autrey looked up.
“I saw the two white lights, and said, ‘Whoa, you ain’t got no time,’ ” Autrey said.
Autrey, 50, grabbed Cameron Hollopeter, 20, in a bear hug and the pair landed in a shallow trough filled with dirty water.
The screeching train missed the pair by the barest of margins.
“In my mind, I believed — I hoped — the train had enough clearance,” Autrey said. “It didn’t hit my head; it just nicked my cap.”
Wesley estimated they were under the train for 20 minutes before the power to an adjacent track was cut so emergency workers could safely remove them.
Hollopeter was hospitalized for treatment for the seizure and minor injuries.
“For someone who got run over by a train, he looks pretty damn good to me,” family member Jeff Friedman said. “Miracles do happen, don’t they?”
Friedman, 55, of New Jersey, said Hollopeter was his daughter’s stepson and was studying to be a film director at New York Film Academy.
“He’s a talented writer, but he couldn’t have written the screenplay any better,” Friedman said.
Of Autrey, Friedman said: “I’d like to buy him a drink, maybe a hundred drinks.”
The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon as Autrey and Hollopeter waited separately for a downtown train.
Autrey, who was taking his two young daughters to meet their mother before heading to his job at a construction site, said he saw Hollopeter fall on his back on the platform and begin to convulse.
After running to a transit worker to call for help, Autrey said he returned to Hollopeter, who was still convulsing and choking. Wesley got a pen from another rider and forced it between Hollopeter’s jaws. Hollopeter soon appeared to recover, and even stood to walk on the platform, Autrey said.
But then Hollopeter stumbled and fell onto the tracks, and Autrey jumped after him.
A Navy veteran who grew up in Brewton, Ala., Autrey was humble about his heroism.
“I’m just saying, I saw someone in distress and went to his aid,” Autrey said.
The No. 1 train pulled in and tried to stop to avoid hitting the pair. Police said at least two cars passed over them before coming to a halt.
Autrey called out from under the train.
“I said, ‘There are two little girls up there,’ ” he said, referring to Shaqui, 6, and Syshe, 4. ‘Let them know their daddy is OK.’ ”
Tuesday afternoon, members of Autrey’s family gathered at his mother’s apartment to cheer his heroism and give thanks for his survival.
“It was the Lord who did it. Can you picture it? God just moved that train over him,” said Autrey’s mother, Mary Autrey, 69.
Autrey’s daughter had a different interpretation.
“Is my daddy going to become Superman?” Shaqui asked.