A blind commuter has a group of good Samaritans to thank after they pulled him from the train tracks just moments before a train came rushing into the Maryland station.
Harrowing footage shows the moment the unidentified man wandered over to the platform’s edge, using his white cane to assess his surroundings at the Red Line’s Medical Center station in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 9. He is then shown fumbling and falling onto the train tracks.
The bystanders sprang into action, with several people rushing to help the man. They managed to pull him off the tracks and onto the platform as the oncoming train’s lights came into view. Clearly shaken, the man laid on the platform and the group of bystanders appeared to comfort him.
“Transit Police and medics responded,” Ian Jannetta, a spokesperson with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, says in a statement. “Victim was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.”
The man’s sister, Syl Higgins, told the Washington Post that her brother takes the train at Medical Center station weekly as he heads to receive treatment for a rare eye disease.
Higgins said her brother was too embarrassed to talk about the mishap with anyone, and only told his family when video footage of the incident began to circulate.
“It’s a very hard video to watch,” Higgins said. “You hear about things like this all the time, but when it’s your own brother…”
Higgins told the publication that she is thankful the strangers stepped in, adding that she told her brother he doesn’t need to feel self-conscious.
“I want him to understand how much people love him,” she said, “and how much people care.”
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