‘We need to get him up now’: Dramatic video shows moment Good Samaritans pull blind man who fell from subway platform off the tracks just seconds before oncoming train
- Incident took place at 8am at Medical Center Station in Bethesda, Maryland
- Visually impaired man with cane is seen falling off subway platform onto tracks
- Brendan Cawley, a commuter, runs to man and tries to lift him out on his own
- But Cawley said man was ‘6ft tall and weighed more than 300 pounds’
- Two other Good Samaritans rush to help Cawley lift man back onto platform
- Man is lifted off tracks just 20 seconds before oncoming train
Dramatic surveillance footage from the Washington, D.C. subway show the heroic actions of three commuters who pulled a blind man who fell onto the tracks and was rescued just moments before the train pulled into the station.
The incident took place at around 8am on Tuesday at the Medical Center Station in Bethesda, Maryland, one town over from the nation’s capital.
Video taken by closed circuit cameras show a visually impaired man who was walking with the aid of a cane fall off the edge of the subway platform.
The man appeared to land hard on his left side as he fell to the tracks on the Glenmont-bound side of the station, WJLA-TV reported.
The image above taken from a surveillance camera on Tuesday morning shows a commuter trying to help a visually impaired man who fell from a subway platform and onto the tracks at a train station in Bethesda, Maryland
The man is seen above standing too close to the edge of the subway platform at Medical Center Station in Bethesda
He then steps over the edge and falls hard onto the tracks. He holds onto the white cane as he falls down
Brendan Cawley, a resident of Bethesda, was standing on the other side of the station and saw the man fall below.
‘I just knew it was something that I needed to do,’ Cawley said.
The 22-year-old startup worker ran directly to the man and tried to pull him up on his own, but he could not.
‘He was around six feet tall and weighed more than 300 pounds,’ Cawley said of the visually impaired man.
Brendan Cawley, a resident of Bethesda, was standing on the other side of the station and saw the man fall below
Cawley (right) then rushed over to the man and tried to help him back onto the platform before the oncoming train arrives
But Cawley said that the man was more than 6ft tall and weighed more than 300 pounds, making it impossible for him to lift him on his own
Two other commuters dressed in business attire ran over to help Cawley rescue the blind man, pulling him to safety as other commuters offer assistance
The blind man was pulled off the tracks about 20 seconds before the arrival of the oncoming train
The man appeared to suffer broken ribs. He also complained of pain in his left arm and shortness of breath
‘I couldn’t do it alone.’
At this point, two other men dressed in business attire ran over to help Cawley.
They quickly worked to pull him off the tracks as it became apparent that there was an oncoming train.
‘I said, “We need to get him up now!”’ Cawley recalled.
‘And we did.’
The three men pulled the visually impaired man onto the platform about 20 seconds before the train pulled into the station.
Other commuters dialed 911 and called for emergency aid while Cawley notified the station manager.
The man appeared to suffer broken ribs. He also complained of pain in his left arm and shortness of breath.
Cawley said that amid the chaos he was simply unable to gather himself long enough to learn the man’s name.
He said he would like to see him and talk to him some day.
‘I have thought a little bit about if I wasn’t there, and to be honest, I’m not exactly sure how the outcome would have been,’ Cawley said.
‘I’m just glad I was.’