SUBWAYblogger can pretty much confirm that there were was most definitely a jumper at 72nd Street (and Broadway). And let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.
Today’s uptown trips on the 1, 2, and 3 line were a nightmare. You had to catch a train somewhere below 42nd Street. Then, most of the trains went express to 96th Street and points north.
As I rode by on my train, you could see over to the other tracks. Police detectives on the tracks wearing rubber gloves just about explains it all.
Anyway, our sources say that the call went out on police radios as a jumper. Later the code went out for a body removal.
Maybe someone “fell” or was “pushed,” but it was most likely a jumper as initial reported.
Have you ever been a witness to something like this?
UPDATE: Turns out someone did witness it:
My wife was on the 1 train when this happened. She said the train slammed on its brakes so hard that many people fell over. They had to stay on the train for 20 minutes before they were let out. My wife saw emergency personnel on the tracks with a stretcher, but not body, blood or parts. (from the comments)
SUBWAYblogger 
[…] “Jumper” at 72nd Street on Uptown 1 Track […]
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My wife was on the 1 train when this happened. She said the train slammed on its brakes so hard that many people fell over. They had to stay on the train for 20 minutes before they were let out. My wife saw emergency personnel on the tracks with a stretcher, but not body, blood or parts.
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My girlfriend was on the platform when he jumped. Talk about having to deal with an emotional female for the rest of the night. She was all shook up from it.
She said the weirdest part was that some guy was filming him from the uptown platform when he jumped and then came to the downtown side and kept filming the whole thing. She said he had a professional sized camera…like the ones news crews use. Staged suicide?
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I guess this just makes me a sick bastard for thinking about this, but I wonder how you actually jump in front of the train.
You cant jump too early, or the train will hit the emergency brakes. Too late, and you could miss.
And what are you doing in the mean time? Do you just stand there quietly? Are you pacing around?
I think it would be scariest as a witness if you were just standing there, and out of the blue the guy in front of you takes a dive. The shock would be unbelievable.
Then what do you do? 99.9999% of the time, you cant pick up your phone and call 911. You have to run upstairs.
You cant go down there to help the guy…he’s under the train!
And for that matter, how do you get someone out from under a train without moving the train?
For example, this guy chose (probably on purpose), the uptown 1 train at 72nd. The train pulls in tightly between the platform and a wall. So you’re not getting a bunch of rescue workers down there…at least not easily.
While it is clearly a very sad thing on many levels, it is also fascinating. It feels wrong to think of it as something to be fascinated by, but you just can’t help it. To think how messed up in the head you must be to want to kill your self by getting hit by a train is nothing short of amazing. What exactly is the mental path that one must take to end up on the tracks?
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I was on the front car when the train stopped at 72nd. The most shocking, and sad thing of my life. Hundreds of people pointing and shouting “there is someone under the train!”, and pointing right below me. I didn’t see the guy filming with the camera, but that sounds weird. We were stuck on the train for about 3-4 mins which felt like a 20 minute eternity. I am down on a trip from a small town. I was quite scared but the girl I was with was freaking out so we got right out of there. I can’t believe it’s not on the nyc news websites..
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Well, I hope this didnt ruin your trip or view of the city. This is NOT a fair representation of normal life in the city. It was just a freak coincidence that you happen to be there when this happened, so I hope you come back!
As for media coverage, you probably wont find much about it. As someone close to the business, I can say that main stream media outlets rarely cover suicides. There’s actually a few dozen suicides a day in the city, but you would never know it.
This is because media coverage actually inspires more suicide attempts. When unstable people know that they will get wide media coverage, more people attempt suicide in grand ways.
So it is sort of an unwritten rule that media outlets avoid suicide storys unless there is some very significant secondary part of the story.
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I was on one of the passing 1 trains that was diverted. Does anyone know what happened to the passengers on the 1 train behind the one that hit this poor guy?
It was between 66 and 72, empty. A group of tourists said, “oh no one’s on that one, what a waste” but all the natives cringed knowing that there had to of been people on the train and we probably all thought about them having to walk through the tunnel.
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I saw the body in the body bag. I was on the 3, which took forever coming up town. When we got to 72nd St, there was one cop with a walkie talkie and a second cop with gloves at the very end of the platform was the body in a bag on a stretcher. It was horrible. It was also the second one I saw this week. The other was on the South Ferry platform on Monday night coming home from work. What’s going on this week?
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i was on the train behind the train that killed the person.. it was so horrible, i was sitting in the very first cart of the train and we were all waiting for 2 hours WITHOUT ELECTRICITY.. our train was dispatched after 2 hours and we all had to walk to the VERY LAST CART which was still on 66th street [thank god, or else we would of had to walk through the tunnel]. and we finally got to get out of the stuffy, humid train.. after that everything was still so hectic with the pouring rain outside and all the traffic.. it was the worst day for me.
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Omg that is sooo scary. Almost sad to say and not to sound narcasistic, but i think the worse part for me would have been having to walk through a tunnel. I mean, growing up ive never liked the subway and now getting used to it at 17 i wouldnt want to go thru a traumatic experience as such. Though, i feel for that guy and the people who actually did see him do what he did and i hope u all get well from seeing that.
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Well to everybody who was there yesterday I was one of the Officers to arrive first on the scene yes it was hectic trying to clear out the station and handle what was going on outside. The jumper was a male African American no one knows he’s age but we all think he was a teenager only god knows , he did’nt fall or get pushed no one can fall right on the 3rd rail the worst part was that we found no ID on him except for a name bracelet . How we got him out easy you turn off the main power being sent to the rails by locating the blue light on the end of the tunnels and pull the cord after that have the motorman use the hydraulics on the train to raise up a feet or two ESU (Emergency Service Unit) works their magic by stacking up pieces of wood then what we call a balloon thats powered by air to push the train up the rest of the way until the top hits the roof there can we pull out the victim. very long process. It’s not what the movies make it seem to most of us officers who seen it many times it looks fake trust me there is worst things
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I was on one of the later trains that let out on 72nd on the express track. I saw a pool of blood in the tracks when walking up the staircase to 73rd… and they had brought the body to the back. It was a really (for lack of a better word) scary moment.
Does anyone know any further developments on this story? It’s so weird that he was being filmed and he had no ID…
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No there is any more parts to the story we cleaned up the mess now its up to the Detective to close this cases everything else is confidential ,I find it stupid how some of the other officers were taking pictures of the body when they pulled it out who in their right mind wants that in their phone I found it disrespectful. Thats a day in the life of the NYPD join us
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Filmed? Who was filming him? Sounds pretty fishy. I mean, was it like a movie kind of filming, or a sort of random, kid with a camera phone or digital camera thing? Thats odd…
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I was with Ryan on this trip to NY and him and another girl had left our walking tour 5-10 min. before my friend and i did to head back to where we were staying…when i found out what had happened i was certainly shook up for the rest of the trip…i was very cautious on where i stood on the platform after that and i was seriously aware of the other people around me just incase anything happened…I never experienced it first hand but it was certainly a story i had brought home …..
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Wow. That mustve been scary, especially for a tourist. I wonder how many tourists felt that day. Its sad because they recieved a bad view of NYC, but u know it happens. Yea Kylie its best to be careful where u stand on the platform. Whenever im @ West 4th station, i make sure i stand in a safe area because there are so many homeless people around.
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I too was with Kylie and Ryan and I was about to leave the walking tour the same time. When I herd about the accident I was shooken up but I than figured it probly happens on a daily basis , yes it is sad but nothing can be done. Other than that incident I loved NYC and I am coming back for sure!
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Oh my goose!!!
Ive had this happen to me once at my stop.
Except my stop was an above ground station (Ft Hamilton on the D line) so when the dude jumped and got splattered by the train Im pretty sure the people down below all received a gift.
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Oh we got kicked off the platform by the police when they got there and I think they closed off the station for 45mins to an hour before they let people back on (enough time to get some lunch at the local diner). You could see a pool of blood still on some of those wooden tracks and I cant forget that very unique smell. If I had my camera I would have taken some pictures.
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Smell? Wow, i feel odd about even talking about this…kinda like a hungry reporter, what kind of smell was that? No disrespect, actually, just sheer curiousity.
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I saw the whole thing because I was standing on the platform 10 ft. away from the guy. It is still haunting me – I live uptown where the train runs above ground and hear it running all night long in my sleep – talk about nightmares. The kid was sitting with his back against the garbage can. As soon as he heard the train coming he took 2 steps backwards and ran to jump. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
In regards to the camera man, he does work for a news team, and just so happened to be filming a story upstairs. When he heard the commotion he ran downstairs to see what was going on.
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In my situation it was a really strong musk that warms the nose. Ive lived in this area for 18 years and ive never smelt anything like that in the neighborhood. It was definitely not a typical smell found in Brooklyn.
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oh wow. thats soo weird. Thats a definite tradgedy.
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The guy who jumped was stand behind me to my left. I saw him moving towards the train but thought he was trying to get a god place to get on the train.
I had just arrived in NY from Scotland on vacation and for a confernce. I’d stopped off at W 72nd to buy something and returned to continue my journey.
The sounds of screams including the jumper were terrible, i felt really sick and could feep the immediate effects ofstress running through my cheeks.
I ran from the platform and walked 35 blocks to West 107th in the pouring rain, too shocked to stop a cab.
The events haunted me for the whole of my visit and I felt myself crying at the most unusaul of times.
I’ve arranged workplace counselling for later today now that I’m back in the UK.
My daughter organises a confidential helpline for university students and we talk about suicide regularly almost as normally as talking about any issue. It in no way prepares you for witnessing the real thing.
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wow. the jumper screamed? I wouldnt have expected to actually hear him scream unless it was unintentional/unexpected. Sorry to hear what ur going thru gordon. But yeah, scary.
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The screams were from under the train. I don’t think he was killed instantly.
My counsellor explained that a chemical release hieghtens witness’s senses which might explain the smell which I also sensed, as well as being tuned in to screaming.
I went through a session of “debriefing” rather than counselling. Hasn’t helped immediately but has given me context through which to deal with it.
Thanks for your words
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no probs. good to hear that ur seeking help. but yeah. this whole situation seems to be talked about alot on here. But, its Ny, have to be careful.
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Hi, is there anyone who witnessed this tragedy who is willing to share any details with me? I am conducting research and this will help me to understand better what took place as you saw it and experienced it. I would really appreciate it. Please email me at lemonzinger2001@yahoo.com
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