Via - Nydailynews
A courageous straphanger jumped to the tracks early Tuesday to help a 48-year-old woman who fell onto the third rail and was burned at a Bronx subway station, officials said.
Good Samaritan Victoria Owusu-Asriyie, 46, leapt onto the tracks after Martina Pamplin tumbled from the platform — and was jolted when she touched the smouldering victim, who was critically injured.
Pamplin’s distraught daughter was overwhelmed with gratitude for Owusu-Asriyie and other strangers who helped haul her mother to safety.
“I just want to tell them that I'm thankful that they were there,” Sharell Pamplin told the Daily News on her way to Montefiore Medical Center to be with her mom.
“I'm thankful that they risked their life trying to save my mother.”
Pamplin was walking on the platform with a cane when she fell to the Manhattan-bound elevated tracks at the Gun Hill Road station on the 2 line in Williamsbridge just after 10:40 a.m., officials and sources said.
“I guess she was light-headed, or ill, and she just fell,” said witness Aisha Gomez, 17, a high school senior from Morrisania.
"I was standing on the platform and heard a thud,” said Malik Saldana, 38.
“I saw a lady in the track and ran down the stairs to the agent at the desk to have them stop the trains approaching the station.”
Owusu-Asriyie, who lives in Olinville, tried to pull Pamplin off of the third rail. Another good Samaritan and a police officer also jumped to the tracks.
Owusu-Asriyie's stepfather Eden Green, 63, said he was not surprised by his step-daughter's brave assist.
“I expect that from her,” Green said. “She's the type of person who would put her life on the line for somebody else, no matter who it is.”
As soon as she touched Pamplin, Owusu-Asriyie suffered a powerful shock to her left hand.
After power was cut to the third rail, cops and civilians lifted Pamplin onto the platform as an ambulance rushed to the scene.
A large burn on her left arm near the elbow was visible as they pulled her onto the platform.
Jacqueline Loud, of the Bronx, said Pamplin was twitching as if she was having a seizure after she fell.
“I took out my phone and called the police,” she said. “Then I saw smoke coming from the body and her left arm was burning.”
Pamplin was rushed by EMTs to Montefiore Medical Center in critical condition, police said.
Owusu-Asriyie was also taken to Montefiore, where she was in stable condition.
By 11:04, power was restored to the tracks and train service was operating as normal.
The victim’s cane fell through the tracks to a building below and was found there, sources said.
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