Highly publicized horror stories like Lynskey’s have had a chilling effect on many New Yorkers even as authorities say crime is down on the metro system and across the city.
Lynskey survived because he fell into a deeper, recessed space under the train and between the tracks, and was not hit by the wheels but rather the undercarriage.
“I knew instantly… that somebody had pushed me and tried to kill me,” the music producer told AFP of the attack at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
“When I hit the tracks and I opened my eyes, the train was on top of me. It was so fast.”
He recalled thinking “I’m going to get hit by the train and I’m going to die.”
A 45-year-old adopted New Yorker, he has not been able to return to the subway, used by four million people daily who flock to the sprawling network of 472 stations and more than 660 miles of track, running day and night.
When he looked around after falling onto the tracks, Lynskey recalled being just inches from the high-voltage rail that powers trains, and seeing his blood pooling on the rail bed.
He was left with a fractured skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.
“I knew that I had to remain calm. There was nobody on the platform answering my calls for help. For about 90 seconds, I was alone, screaming for help,” he said.
“A woman started answering me… a Good Samaritan. She asked me what my name was. She asked me if I could move. She asked me if I could wiggle my fingers and wiggle my toes to see if, I guess if I was paralyzed, and I think she was trying to keep me awake.”
Within minutes firefighters, police and subway workers arrived, with two firefighters retrieving him from the tracks, having been trained to do so just days before.
Lynskey later met his rescuers to give them a hug and thank them properly.
His rescue was captured on film and widely shared on social media, with rescuers expressing surprise that he was alive once he was lifted through the gap between two carriages.
Lynskey still struggles to understand why his attacker, a 23-year-old man with criminal convictions and mental health issues, would want to harm him.
He chooses instead to focus his attention on the kindness of strangers, like those who have written to him from around the world to express solidarity.
‘Back against the wall’
