Transit Workers Praised for Life Saving Actions in Two Separate Incidents
For the second time in less than a week, a TWU Local 100 member from the Rapid Transit Operations department was featured on prime-time television for life-saving actions.
Subway Train Operator Louis-Mark Perry was taking his No. 7 train through a tunnel in Long Island City, Queens, Tuesday when he saw a man wedged up against the wall. Perry hit the brakes and then convinced the disorientated man, who was then in jeopardy of being electrocuted by the third rail, to board the train. "Once he got up into the train I told him, 'I don't know if you're married or if you have kids," Perry told WABC news reporter N.J. Burkett on Wednesday. "But if you do, you need to go home and hug your wife, hug the kids and be thankful you're alive. Because you really, you really could have been killed."
Just days earlier, Conductor Benjamin Schaeffer quickly evacuated his N train in Brooklyn after learning that an apparently homeless man spilled gasoline onto the floor of one of the cars. Schaeffer was featured on WNBC Channel 4.
“I’m proud of how Operator Perry and Conductor Schaeffer handled these life-or-death situations - but I’m not surprised,” TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano said. “We are trained professionals and we do what needs to be done when there is an emergency situation.”