Watch NYPD Officers Save Blind Man who Fell onto Subway Tracks

May 26, 2022

Hearing an oncoming train, an NYPD officer and detective worked quickly to rescue a blind man who stumbled off a Brooklyn subway platform without tactile warning strips.

By Clayton Guse

Source New York Daily News

A pair of quick-thinking cops saved a blind man who fell onto a set of Brooklyn subway tracks as a train pulled into the station, police said Wednesday.

The rescue — caught on video by one of the officer’s body cameras — came after Suleiman Rifai, 61, stumbled off the platform at the Grant Ave. station on the A line about 2: 15 p.m. on May 18.

NYPD Officer Jason Macaluso and Detective Henry Greco pulled a bleeding Rifai to safety in the nick of time.

“We did hear the train coming toward us at first, and then we saw the light of a train coming,” Greco said during a ceremony at MTA headquarters Wednesday. “I waved my arms and used my flashlight to wave down the train to slow it down.”]

The platform at the station does not have tactile warning strips that warn blind riders when they approach the edge. It’s one of roughly 80 stations without the strips, which are required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I was coming from work,” Rifai recalled. “For some reason that day I misstepped and things happen. I’ve been doing this trip 17 years.

“Without you I would never be here today, so I really am grateful for you being there at the right time. And when I heard your voices, I knew I would be OK,” Rifai told his saviors.

Transit officials said Wednesday that they’re working to add tactile strips to every platform in the subway, including the station where Rifai fell.

“That’s an ongoing current project to knock out those last 80 stations, which has been in the works for some time but is actually physically ongoing right now,” said MTA Chairman Janno Lieber.

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