Name: Class:

“Help Him Up!”: A Witness’s Account of Panic on

a Subway Platform
By Michael Wilson
2017

More than 5 million people ride the New York City subway every day. In this article, Michael Wilson, a
reporter for The New York Times, describes his personal account of a frightening incident and the New
Yorkers who were willing to help.

[1] The man stood bent at the waist, but sideways, as

if he were doing some kind of deep stretching. He
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was incoherent and filthy, his pants around his
ankles but boxer shorts intact. Asleep on his feet
with his head buried in his puffy coat, he leaned
with an arm outstretched against a metal pillar.

The pillar, deep below ground in the Second

Avenue subway station in Manhattan, was all that
stood between him and the platform edge and
the tracks of the Brooklyn-bound F train.

"Subway II" by Adrian Scottow is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

It was Saturday afternoon, April 29. Everyone who
came down the stairs to the train platform saw
him, myself included, and everyone did the same thing. Watched him. He wobbled this way and that,
never straightening up or lowering himself to the ground. He just swayed side to side, his full weight
against the pillar.

Maybe some people thought about approaching him — as I did — and took another look at those
fallen pants, the streaked pale legs — as I did — and decided to keep their distance. I did.

[5] A few women walked over to the emergency call box and spoke to someone through a speaker. They
said a homeless man looked as if he might fall on the tracks.

A few minutes passed this way.

And then it happened. The man lurched and lost his hold on the pillar and plunged over the edge of
the platform to the tracks below.

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It is a very specific New York City preoccupation and plotline, a horror and a drama that grips the
imagination and lays down a gut check.

What happens when someone falls on the tracks and can’t save himself? What would you do if you
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were there? What if a train is coming? Which one is the electrified — and fatal — third rail?

1. Incoherent (adjective): spoken or written in an unclear, confusing way

2. an idea that fills someone’s mind so they can’t think about anything else

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[10] These stories typically have two endings, and I’ve written them both. The happy endings introduce
another stranger to the ranks of that New York subset of rescuers, the subway hero.

I interviewed one, an actor named Chad Lindsey, in 2009, after he jumped down and pulled a drunken
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man out of the path of a downtown-bound train in Pennsylvania Station. He in turn evoked the
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hallowed name of another, Wesley Autrey, who a couple of years earlier had laid down on top of a
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man having a seizure between the rails and waited as a train passed over them.

Couldn’t have done that, Mr. Lindsey said. Did what I did, but I couldn’t have done that. Mr. Lindsey had
no warning that day — the guy wasn’t there one second, and on the tracks the next.

On that afternoon at Second Avenue, we all watched a similar situation play out.

Time slowed. A woman screamed. I pulled my messenger bag off my shoulder and let it drop. I was
aware, behind me, of another woman shouting into the call box. There were a dozen or more people
nearby. I distinctly remember a man yelling, “For God’s sake, stay away from that third rail!”

[15] I ran several feet to the edge of the platform where the man had fallen. He was coming toward me —
not because he had suddenly sobered up, but because there was another man down there already,
pushing him toward safety.

I bent down and grabbed two fistfuls of puffy coat below his shoulders. Other hands reached down on
either side of me and grabbed, too. We all pulled without a word, and up he came. We dragged him
away from the edge.

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I looked back for the second man, but he wasn’t on the tracks. He had already vaulted back up to
safety.

People clapped and shouted and smiled at one another. The young man who had jumped down to
help, wearing a green jacket, walked around in circles by himself, shaking a little. Two Metropolitan
Transportation Authority workers whom I had seen upstairs earlier, tending to a MetroCard machine,
appeared and spoke to the homeless man, who had pulled his pants up.

I’m O.K., he told them. I’m just dirty.

[20] You can’t stay here, they told him. You have to go back up to the street.

A police officer arrived, and I lost track of the man.

I approached the rescuer in the green jacket and introduced myself. His name was David Capuzzo, 26.
He was coming from his job waiting tables at Rosie’s, a Mexican restaurant just outside the station
entrance above.

3. deadly
4. mentioned
5. Hallowed (adjective): honored or holy
6. a sudden attack of illness, especially a physical fit
7. to jump while pushing up on something with one’s hands

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 He was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and adopted by American parents. He was raised in the suburbs in
New England. He is an illustrator, lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and waits tables to make extra money.

He was heading to his girlfriend’s apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, when he entered the station.

[25] “I see the guy,” he said later. “I pictured myself helping him, but I didn’t. I just kept looking back at him
and looking at everybody else look at him.” Eventually he lost interest. “I got caught up on my phone.”

Then: “I heard all those ladies yell.”

Mr. Capuzzo saw the man on the tracks. “He was hunched over,” he said. “He’s kind of, like, wobbling.”

Mr. Capuzzo said he called out: “Press the button! Press the button!” and walked in a quick circle. Then
he acted.

“I just jumped down,” he said. “I grabbed, like, his legs together and I stood up. This is a time-sensitive
issue. I don’t know where the train is.”

[30] He shouted, “Help him up!” He felt the man rise from his arms, lifted to the platform, and then made
his own escape.

“I jumped up, like, no problem,” he said. “I hurt my hand a little bit.” It all happened so quickly, it was a
blur — Mr. Capuzzo is not even certain he was the only person who jumped down to help.

Several minutes later, the F train, in typical weekend fashion, finally arrived, its potential victim long
gone. Mr. Capuzzo got out after a few stops. He texted his girlfriend, “Guy fell so I had to jump on the
tracks now I have a cut on my hand.” He called his mother. Both were upset with him at first, “mad I
jumped on the tracks in the first place,” he said, but more thankful he was O.K.

In the days since, Mr. Capuzzo has looked for the homeless man near the subway. No sightings yet.
The man looked so incoherent, he might not even remember what happened. He most likely would not
recognize the man who jumped down and helped him. The Police and Fire Departments had no record
of calls regarding the incident.

Mr. Capuzzo said that before he jumped, he remembered an old public service announcement:
“Twenty people are thinking someone else called about the gas leak.” He recalled thinking, “If nobody
does anything, he’s going to die.”

[35] He did something. And someday, another person will save someone on the tracks, and that tale will be
told, and that rescuer might look back and remember the one from 2017, and the part about the pants
around the ankles. That guy who grabbed the legs and lifted him up like that? Couldn’t do it. Did what I
did, but couldn’t do that.

“'Help Him Up!': A Witness’s Account of Panic on a Subway Platform” from The New York Times by Michael Wilson. Copyright © 2017 by The
New York Times. Used by permission of Publisher. All rights reserved.

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 Text-Dependent Questions
Directions: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

1. PART A: Which statement best expresses the central idea of this article?
A. When a normal commute home is interrupted, it can cause lifelong fear and
anxiety for New York City residents.
B. Some people will selflessly take extraordinary action to save people who are in
danger because they feel responsible.
C. After performing a heroic action, rescuers such as Capuzzo and Lindsey often
become arrogant.
D. New Yorkers rarely help each other or show concern when tragedy strikes.

2. PART B: Which detail from the text best supports the answer to Part A?
A. “It was Saturday afternoon, April 29. Everyone who came down the stairs to the
train platform saw him, myself included, and everyone did the same thing.
Watched him.” (Paragraph 3)
B. “It is a very specific New York City preoccupation and plotline, a horror and a
drama that grips the imagination and lays down a gut check.” (Paragraph 8)
C. “He texted his girlfriend, ‘Guy fell so I had to jump on the tracks now I have a cut
on my hand.’ He called his mother. Both were upset with him at first, ‘mad I
jumped on the tracks in the first place,’ he said, but more thankful he was O.K.”
(Paragraph 32)
D. “Mr. Capuzzo said that before he jumped, he remembered an old public service
announcement: ‘Twenty people are thinking someone else called about the gas
leak.’” (Paragraph 34)

3. In paragraphs 1-4, how does the author introduce the people on the platform at the
beginning of the narrative?
A. by demonstrating how caring and kind the people on the platform could be
B. by contrasting Mr. Capuzzo’s courage with the other people’s fear
C. by implying that the people on the platform knew the man was in danger
D. by contrasting other people’s curiosity with the way the narrator kept to himself

4. How does paragraph 14 contribute to the text?

A. It explains how the man fell onto the subway tracks.
B. It shows how the author took heroic action to save the man on the tracks.
C. It describes how the people in the subway station did not do enough to help.
D. It creates tension and suspense by describing what happened before the man
was rescued.

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5. In the last paragraph of the article, the author repeats Chad Lindsey’s statement: “Couldn’t
do it. Did what I did, but couldn’t do that.” How does this repetition develop the author’s
ideas in the text?
A. It emphasizes his belief that people who do heroic things are not motivated by
pride.
B. It proves that heroic people are rare in a world in which most people follow the
crowd.
C. It implies that the author believes Lindsey and Capuzzo are not really heroes.
D. It emphasizes the guilt that many heroes feel after they help someone.

6. How does the author use the structure of the text to develop his ideas? Be sure to describe
how the major sections of the text contribute to the text overall.

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 Discussion Questions
Directions: Brainstorm your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared to
share your original ideas in a class discussion.

1. How does this article demonstrate the possible positive and negative effects of following
the crowd?

2. After the rescue, Mr. Capuzzo texted his mother and girlfriend, saying, “Guy fell so I had to
jump on the tracks.” What does this statement reveal regarding the mindset of heroic
people? Can you think of other people who have this mindset?

3. What do you think held the people on the platform back from taking action before the man
fell? When have you seen people holding back from intervening or helping others?