Woman pulled from tracks ahead of rushing train
OTTAWA — An elderly woman who fell onto the LRT tracks at Rideau Station was rescued by two men — one an OC Transpo employee — just moments before a rush-hour train sped into the station.
Commuters watched, terrified, as the two rescuers worked to lift the stricken woman from the tracks even as the westbound train could be heard in the tunnel, approaching the station.
“They pulled her off the tracks maybe 10 seconds before the train pulled into the station,” said former Ottawa Citizen and Sun editor Michelle Richardson, one of those to witness the rescue earlier this week. “It was absolutely terrifying.”
Troy Charter, OC Transpo’s director of transit operation, confirmed the 5:30 p.m. incident, but was unable to say if the woman tripped, fainted of suffered a seizure. “An individual fell on the tracks at Rideau Station,” he said. “The O-Train ambassador and other passengers assisted; the individual was pulled from the tracks.”
Richardson said she was on the westbound platform when she heard a commotion a few feet to her left: “This woman had tumbled onto the tracks: She was in the middle of the rails.”
She did not see how the woman fell. But the woman had tumbled through some yellow bollards at the edge of the platform, Richardson said, and landed face down on the tracks. As people yelled at the woman to get up, a man leaped onto the track, which is only a few feet below the platform.
“At that point, the red-vested OC Transpo official started yelling, ‘Get off the track, they’re electric! Get off the track, don’t touch anything!’” said Richardson. “But you could hear the train coming in the tunnel.”
Some commuters tried to find the emergency phones to halt the train; Richardson dialed 911 as she watched events unfold.
The OC Transpo worker, she said, jumped onto the tracks to assist the other rescuer. They managed to get the woman to her feet then lifted her onto the platform. The OC Transpo worker was the last to remove himself from the tracks.
“The westbound train didn’t stop: It pulled in seconds later,” said Richardson.
The woman seemed to recover somewhat on the platform, she said, and walked from the scene with assistance.