SUBWAY HERO
MOTORMAN SAVES KID ON TRACKS
The quick-thinking operator of an express subway train plucked a boy to safety Thursday after he spotted the youngster standing by a third rail between local and express tracks at a Brooklyn station. The operator halted his train and safely brought aboard the 13-yearold boy, who suffers from depression. “Thank you,” the boy’s mom, Jen Chapin, repeated through tears, addressing the train operator who saved him from disaster. Chapin is the daughter of the late Harry Chapin, the legendary singer-songwriter behind the 1974 hit, “Cat’s in the Cradle.” “It was just part of my job,” train operator Hopeton Kiffin, 51, of Brooklyn, told the Daily News. “I was trying to do what is right, and I’m a father and an uncle, so I felt protective of him. He was in a dangerous spot on the track.” Chapin said her son has been depressed in recent months. The teen, whose name being withheld, has been going to school on his own since sixth grade and has never gotten in trouble before, she said. Kiflin spotted the teen as he was operating a northbound No. 5 train past the Hoyt St. 2/3 local stop. The teen had dropped down to the roadbed then climbed over a third rail. He was standing between the express and local tracks when the eagle-eyed train operator saw him.
“I was on the express track going like 15 miles per hour when I saw a red jacket,” Kiffin told The News. “I slowed down and saw someone on the platform and they were pointing. When I got close I saw the child.”
A commuter also notified the station agent that a boy was walking along the dangerous track bed. The station agent immediately alerted transit authorities and the police.
Kiffin stopped the train, climbed down to the tracks, and helped the boy on to the train through a door to the operator’s cab. The boy’s hands were covered with steel dust from the tracks, he said.
“He was nonresponsive verbally,” Kiffin said. “When I motioned him to come with me, he wasn’t responding. I took his arm. He stepped over the third rail and I got him on the train. He had left his book bag on the platform, so someone threw it to me.”
The train took the boy to the next stop, Brooklyn Borough Hall, where police took over and reunited him with his family. The teen didn’t speak throughout the incident, Kiffin said.
Medics initially took him to Brooklyn Hospital Center. From there he was transferred to Brookdale Hospital, which has a psychiatric emergency room. His father met him at the hospital, his mom said.
An Administration for Children’s Services worker showed up at the family’s Brooklyn apartment to conduct an interview later Thursday.
“This could have been a terrible tragedy if not for the alertness and professionalism of our train operator,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Tony Utano said.
“You can never relax when you are operating a subway train,” Utano said. “You have to be alert for anything out of the ordinary, and this story has a happy ending because this operator … managed to get him to safety.”
NYC Transit President Andy Byford said he was proud of the operator and station agent for their quick actions.
“We also thank the NYPD, the customer who notified our station staff and everyone who worked together for the safety and welfare of this child,” he added.
Kiffin said he applied a lesson he learned on the job in the incident.
“I have an 8-year-old daughter, and I was just trying to be calm,” he said. “What I’ve learned is that passengers feed off our our emotions. If they sense you’re calm, they will remain calm. Being calm makes them calm.”