Commuters Push Train to Save Passenger in Japan, Woman Escapes Uninjured (VIDEO)
Commuters pushed a train to save a passenger in Saitama, Japan, Monday morning after the woman fell in between the gap. 40 passengers and other staff members worked diligently to free the woman during the notoriously busy rush hour.
The commuters pushed the train to save the passenger, with various people banding together to move the 32-metric-ton car, JR East spokesman Takashi Tsukahara told CNN. The woman, who was in her 30s, was attempting to get off the train when she fell into the small gap up to her waist and could not get out.
Fortunately, the train is built to sway from side to side to compensate for the cars' movements, Tsukahara explained. The passengers were able to push the car just enough so the woman could get out, and a Yomiuri Shimbun photographer in the area told the Associated Press that a big cheer could be heard when she was finally pulled to safety.
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Despite her fall, the woman had no serious injuries. The train resumed its schedule just eight minutes later.
The dangerous occurrence is similar to an incident earlier this month in Atlanta, Ga., when 50-year-old Kenneth Hunter fell onto the tracks at the MARTA Five Points Station. In that case, commuters formed a human chain to help him to safety, and one man even jumped down onto the tracks to push him upward as the train was approaching.
"They took care of me. I'm alive now," Hunter told WXIA-TV. "I'm grateful."
A Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority officer witnessed the incident and radioed for the power to be shut off to the third rail to prevent an electrocution. Rob Roberts of Warren, Mich., didn't know whether the power was on or not when he sprang into action.
"I wasn't sure, you know, jumping down there, whether or not the train was going to be on us. And then the train did come, but it stopped at the entrance," Roberts, who was in Atlanta for a teaching conference, explained.
