MIRACLE!
WOMAN SURVIVES PUSH ONTO TRACKS: PAGE 11
In two terrifying seconds, a Manhattan subway rider’s worst nightmare became a mass transit miracle.
A deranged homeless man with a running start shoved an unsuspecting woman in front of an oncoming subway train Thursday in the Union Square station, with the helpless victim improbably landing in the roadbed between the tracks and emerging intact after two of the 70,000-pound cars passed over her.
Video of the attack shows an unhinged Aditya Vemulapati, 24, pacing up and down the platform, sizing up the victim and then violently pushing the woman from behind with both hands in the instant before a northbound No. 5 train arrived.
The woman goes flying beneath the train, landing in the small space between its rolling wheels, even as a witness covers his eyes and recoils in horror.
“It was by the grace of God that she sustained only minor injuries,” NYPD Transit Chief Kathleen O’Reilly told reporters at the station.
“We see him waiting and calculating when the train comes into the station, and at the opportune moment he pushed her to the tracks.”
The 40-year-old woman emerged shaken but generally unscathed after the man attacked her in the Manhattan train hub without uttering a word around 8:45 a.m., cops said.
The victim, treated for a head injury at Bellevue Hospital, returned to her Brooklyn apartment about six hours later, declining to speak and a bit unsteady on her feet.
“This is someone who was minding their business waiting to go to work and then suddenly someone comes out of nowhere and throws them on the tracks,” said New York City Transit interim President Sarah Feinberg. “This city has a mental health crisis and people are desperate for mental care.”
Vemulapati immediately surrendered to an MTA train service supervisor by placing his hands behind his head and lying on the ground, police said. A second transit worker ran to alert police at the station precinct, with the suspect quickly taken into custody.
The suspect, who had no prior arrests, was charged with attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment, cops said.
The FDNY shut down the power on the tracks as they extricated the woman from under the train. The train operator managed to stop before the train was fully inside the station, with four of its cars still in the tunnel outside.
It was the second time in just 14 hours that a stranger attacked a straphanger. A 36-year-old man was beaten and shoved to the train tracks Wednesday night at the 42nd St.-Bryant Park stop after refusing to give change to a panhandler.
In that case, suspect Justin Pena, 23, was busted around midday Thursday on charges of attempted murder and reckless endangerment.
Pena, wearing a red tracksuit, punched the man repeatedly in the face and shoved him onto the southbound B/D tracks, police said.
The victim managed to climb back onto the platform before a train could enter the station, police said. The man wen to Bellevue Hospital to be treated for minor injuries to his knee and hands.
Arraignments for both suspects were pending Thursday.
In the Thursday morning Union Square attack, cops were quick to respond in the busy location where 22 million riders pass through every year.“We have a lot of people coming through here ... including the homeless,” said Capt. Anthony Guadagno.