GREGORY DAVID & HARPER ESPANA

MECHANICS

Arepair job on the platform of a Staten Island Railway station turned into a life-or-death event when a young man on a bike tumbled onto the tracks.

Mechanics Gregory Harper and David Espana were on a job at the Old Town station on the morning of Sept. 11 when they saw a man fall onto the tracks and hit his head on the rail.

With the man and his bike lying dangerously on the trackbed, Espana, 35, from Flushing, Queens, jumped off the platform and stood between the electrified third rail and the man to keep him from stumbling into it.

Harper then radioed to a dispatcher to cut the power and warn trains in the area. He went to the edge of the station and waved his arms to signal a motorman in any oncoming train to stop.

A motorman pulling into the station saw the signal, preventing an accident from turning deadly.

“It just seemed that we did what we were trained to do,” Harper said.