Crime & Safety

Blind Man Falls in Front of Train and Lives to Tell About It

It sounds like something out of a movie. The train rolls right over the man, who is unharmed.

Originally posted at 5:33 p.m. March 6, 2014. 

A 47-year-old blind man walked off a Metro Red Line platform today into the path of an oncoming train that rolled over, but did not harm him, authorities said.

The man, walking with a cane, was on the eastbound side of the platform at the Wilshire Boulevard/Vermont Avenue station about 3:20 p.m. when he plunged over the edge, Metro spokesman Paul Gonzales said.

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The train operator saw the man headed for platform's edge as he pulled into the station and sounded the horn to no avail, he said.

The man fell onto the tracks and the train, which could not be stopped in time, rolled over him as he lay flat, Gonzales said.

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The Los Angeles resident ended up under the second car of a six-car train, he said.

Firefighters put the man on a backboard to pulled him out, Gonzalez said.

The man had no visible injuries, but was taken to Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, he said, adding that the Red Line resumed normal service at 4:05 p.m.

"If he would have fell a different way he could have been easily crushed under the train," Gonzales said. "It was a miraculous ending."

--City News Service


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