Michelle Kim

Man Rescued From Subway Tracks Just Before Train Roars in, Video Shows

Jonathan Kulig was headed to his overnight shift as engineering supervisor when he spotted the young man falling onto the tracks

A man waiting for the train in Manhattan jumped onto the subway tracks to rescue a young person who fell, just a minute before the train came roaring into the station Saturday night, dramatic cellphone video shows.

Jonathan Kulig, 29, was headed to his overnight shift as engineering supervisor at Con Edison when he spotted the young man falling onto the tracks at the Third Avenue L train station in Manhattan, a Con Edison spokesman says. 

"There wasn't really any thought," Kulig told News 4. "I made sure that I was safe before I jumped down there, but the thought of should I do this should I not do this, that didn't cross my mind."

Kulig leaped onto the tracks, lifted up the young man and heaved his body onto the platform, where another woman grabbed him. The man appeared to be in and out of consciousness. 

"Talk to me, what's happening?" Kulig says to the man, whose clothing was covered in mud from the tracks. 

Kulig and the woman escort the man onto the subway bench. Seconds later, a Brooklyn bound L train train pulls into the station. 

EMTs responded and took the man to a local hospital. It's still not clear how or why he fell. Bystanders in the video say the man had been staggering and bumping into things before he fell. 

"If I didn't pick him up that train would've got him, because there weren't really anyone else that was jumping down, he probably wouldn't be around," Kulig said.

Kulig, of Glendale, Queens, told the Daily News he had taken a track safety session as part of a project about a month ago. He said he made sure he knew where he could go if the train was approaching and that he had his escape plan.

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