Horror photos reveal torment of man pinned between 4 train and platform
By MATTHEW NESTEL, KIRSTAN CONLEY and JEREMY OLSHAN
Last Updated: 5:46 AM, December 13, 2010
Posted: 1:35 AM, December 13, 2010
These harrowing pictures show a subway rider's agony as he stands crushed between a subway train and platform Friday night.
Michael Dion, 41, grimaced in terrible pain as the hydraulic platform extender drove into his midsection at the Union Square station -- and he remained helplessly pinned there for nearly 30 minutes before workers managed to free him.
Yesterday, Dion was clinging to life at Bellevue Hospital in the surgical intensive-care unit.
Friends and family visited him in the hospital, where he remained unconscious on a ventilator, holding onto a worn stuffed animal someone tucked under his arm.
Mike Day
AGONY: Michael Dion grimaces in anguish while pinned for nearly 30 minutes between a train and a hydraulic platform extender at Union Square Station.
AGONY :Michael Dion grimaces in anguish while pinned for nearly 30 minutes between a train and a hydraulic platform extender at Union Square Station.
AGONY :Michael Dion grimaces in anguish while pinned for nearly 30 minutes between a train and a hydraulic platform extender at Union Square Station.
Neither the visitors nor hospital staff would comment on his condition.
Dion fell into the gap at 10 p.m. Friday night after the 4 train pulled into the station, and he was trapped before workers were able to disengage the hydraulics and free him, witnesses said.
"All those little ridges were in his stomach," said witness Josh Betters, 22.
"He was screaming, and you could hear him over the people crowded around him. Somebody was holding his hand," Betters said.
Another witness, Mike Day, 30, of The Bronx, said he was standing in the train by the doors when Dion fell down.
He said several people on the platform tried to help Dion, pushing the movable platform with their feet.
"One guy even tried to put a box in between to wedge it open. But he couldn't move it," said Day, who snapped these dramatic pictures as police tried to free Dion.
"He kept saying it was hurting -- he was conscious," he said. "Every time they tried to pull him, he was like, 'Stop, stop. It hurts too much.' "
The train's operator, Janice Carter, said that as soon as she brought the train to a stop, people started banging on her window and shouting that a man had been stuck.
"I secured my train and came out to investigate," she said. "It was complete madness. People everywhere. I saw the man between the gap filler and the train. He was yelling."
One transit worker at the scene said it took about 20 minutes before a contractor arrived and was able to climb into a platform manhole to work on the extender's hydraulics. After about 10 more minutes, he removed a tube from the device, releasing air pressure so the victim could be freed by cops, sources said.
Firefighters arrived several minutes after that and removed the man, the MTA worker said.
According to IMDb.com, Dion has appeared in several small independent films.
In recent years, the MTA has made modifications at stations where there are larger-than-normal gaps between the platform and the train, particularly on the Long Island Rail Road. The Union Square station is one of only a handful of city subway stations that have the movable extenders.
The MTA would only say it was continuing to investigate the incident.
jeremy.olshan@nypost.com
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/train_suffering_39bd6X65KyYQ50xtFobNGJ#ixzz180OylxCY
you be suprised what goes on weekly in our system
