Quick response saves woman's life in Boston subway accident

Alert passengers and a subway operator with quick reflexes averted tragedy in a Boston subway station Monday night. An apparently inebriated woman had fallen onto the tracks as a southbound Orange Line train bore down on her -- but the train stopped just in time to save her life.

Passengers on the platform began waving their arms wildly to alert the operator of the oncoming train after the woman, since identified as 26-year-old Sophia Hartdegen, fell off the platform edge onto the tracks. At the same time, the operator, 27-year-old Charice Lewis, heard a radio dispatch from the station inspector at North Station telling her to pull the emergency brake fast.

She did. 27 seconds later, the train came to a stop right at the end of the platform, just inches from Hartdegen's head. Bystanders helped Hartdegen back onto the platform as Lewis opened the train's front door to inspect the scene.

Hartdegen later told police that she had been drinking for several hours before the incident. She was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for observation and released; she had some minor scrapes but was otherwise unhurt.

"It was so close, I thought it was not good," Lewis told The Boston Globe after the event. "Afterward she came up with a big smile on her face and I'm like 'Oh my God, you really scared me,'" Lewis said. "The most exciting part for me is she crawled out from under."

Lewis and North Station inspector Jacqueline Osorio, who issued the radio call, were honored with a standing ovation from fellow employees at an MBTA board meeting Tuesday. Lewis received a call from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick after the incident, and state Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan hailed her as a hero. Lewis, for her part, said she was just doing her job.

In an e-mail to The Boston Herald this morning, Hartdegen thanked the passengers and MBTA personnel for saving her life. "I am amazed so many people stepped up to help someone in trouble," she said. "The story isn’t about me. The story is about the train operator and the people on the platform and I want to express my thanks again to those people. I am still a bit in shock, but the kindness and quick thinking of all of those people who came together to save my life will forever have my thanks and gratitude." See the video of woman falling on under Boston tracks here.

Written by Sandy Smith

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