A man jumped in front of a Northbound 1 train at 72nd Street on Thursday morning shortly before 7 a.m., officials told the Daily News.
Trains skipped the 72nd Street station for over an hour, and afterward service resumed with delays.
If you are thinking about harming yourself or attempting suicide please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Thanks to Laurie for the photo.
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So this is why my commute was messed up this morning. The announcer kept saying there are delays because of an “earlier incident”.
@ Sherman, really? How hideous that you believe your precious time carries more importance than this poor man’s life. Shame on you.
All he was saying was “so that’s what was going on”. He doesn’t say or imply his time is worth more than a life. These comments are the UWS at it’s most laughably recognizable.
It’s one thing to say “So that’s what was going on” to yourself, on finding out what delayed your commute.
It’s quite another to think that *that* is a comment on the entire event to be shared publicly with people who otherwise had no concerns about your own personal commute.
It’s not so much that Sherman came to awareness of what delayed his commute, as it is that he thought it of sufficient public interest that that was his only comment he could offer about another human ending his own life.
You should file a claim against the dead man’s estate (once he’s identified). How dare he mess up your commute??
@Cato
Exactly. Funny (not really) how people take a tragedy like this and make it about their own minor/temporary inconvenience. Literally shaking my head at comment #1.
Holier than thou much?
condolences to the family
Wow – how incredibly sad.
I was on the downtown platform at around 7:45 this morning and had no idea.
Message to the WSR:
If you need to post a (sad) incident like this. Please turn off the ability to post a comment. Obviously people like Sherman are more concerned with their commute rather than someone who unfortunately took their own life. Thank you.
he did not say he was more concened with his commute – he was simply stating what conducter had said about incident
And that was the *only* comment he could make about another human committing suicide. Not a word about the victim; only about himself, and then relatively trivial.
I’m sure many other people were inconvenienced that morning, but they are not all posting about it. Perhaps they see that there were other things to be concerned about with the end of a life.
The comments here are not that the poster’s commute was delayed, but about the fact that his own inconvenience was all that mattered to him.
Get a grip, why would you assume anyone thinks their commute is more important than someone’s life? He made a comment. This morning, unless you were there and saw it, no one knew what the problem was. Of course your first reaction upon finding out is “OH, thats why. Got it.” I need to get to the Bronx every morning from that station. The cab I took to avoid being late due to this cost me $40. My commute was messed up too. It’s a fact. It cost me money. It’s a fact. Doesn’t mean I think my commute is more important. It’s a comment. No one is allowed to comment on this post about how this affected them this morning without getting attacked?
Thanks, AG. You just articulated my own sentiment. For all we know, Sherman may have gone on to think that the delay was about something important after all…. after just not knowing. I felt the reactions were just too many assumptions for – as you noted – a comment. And a valid one.
Thank you, AG. I had the same experience this morning and the same reaction. The original poster said nothing heartless and cruel. Just a statement of fact. Re-read what he wrote. Smh.
I agree, AG. Poor Sherman is being dumped on needlessly. I too wondered why those trains were messed up this morning. You can wonder about that and simultaneously feel bad when learning the reason. Sherman, ignore these clowns.
I get what you’re saying. Unfortunately, we have this awful report, info about the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and the very first sentence in the comments is “So this is why my commute was messed up this morning.” There’s nothing in the comment that registers the simultaneously feeling badly part. And that’s what I think people are a little annoyed about.
This is really so tragic and so very sad. I feel so badly for him and his family. Nobody should have to have their life end this way.
Don’t forget the man or woman who was driving that train, and was forced to witness a death that they were helpless to avoid. This happens many times each year, and the train driver is traumatized by the event. I imagine the people on the platform who see this are also traumatized.
Suicide almost always affects more people than the one who dies – it is a pity that someone does this before finding the help they need. It is a pity that their life
becomes so painful that this could seem like an easier way out. Yet it is something that most people have considered, however briefly, at some point in their life. Most of us are lucky enough that we found a better path. We might be grateful for our luck.
This is very troubling. Haven’t there been a couple other incidents like this recently at this subway stop?
I’m sure what the transit authority or the police can do to help. That station is somewhat dangerous when it is crowded.
The MTA lengthened the subway platform a few years ago; but unfortunately, they were not able to widen the platform.
Sad when any one loses their life. My prayers are with this person’s family.
This has been my station every morning for the past 4 years and I see the same families taking their kids to school at this time. I’ve never heard about anyone intentionally jumping in front of the train at this stop and while I do agree this is a very narrow and dangerous platform, no walls or widening of the platform is going to prevent actions like this. Yesterday, I saw the crosstown bus pulling up just as I was about to cross Broadway to the station so I hopped on that and didn’t know what happened until I read about it here. I didn’t see the usual group of parents and kids there this morning when I went to work this morning, and now I’m wondering how many of them witnessed this. I would much rather have police in this station as opposed to sitting on the corner of 72nd waiting for booksellers to show up.
“I would much rather have police in this station as opposed to sitting on the corner of 72nd waiting for booksellers to show up.
now that woman’s got her priorities straight!
An even better response would be to help the booksellers move their operation *onto* the 72nd Street subway platform.
That way the police could monitor the booksellers *and* the safety of passengers. And, of course, it would get the booksellers off the sidewalks.
No, wait, on second thought, this might mess up Sherman’s commute. Never mind.
My understanding is that the MTA averages about 26 suicides per year–that’s one every two weeks. Enclosed platforms where the cars are accessed via sliding doors that open when the train arrives could cut down on these suicides. (There’s some evidence that preventing “impulse” attempts does actually deter some people altogether.) But of course the expense and inconvenience would be huge.
We could build walls along our subway and railroad station platforms with sliding doors located where the doors to the passenger cars are located. It would go a long way to keeping users safer and stop such terrible sadnesses from happening.d
Suicide is very sad. Widening a platform is not going to stop someone who is willing to end their life. That’s just the nature of what it is. That said, jumping in front of a subway, during rush hour when you know small children are present, is a very selfish.
Just to clarify: our suggestion is to build walls on the existing railroad and subway platforms. These walls are in use else where. See the follow URL address for suicide prevention walls in a Japanese train station: https://boingboing.net/2008/09/25/antisuicide-barriers.html
We hope this helps clarify our suggestion for those who might have read something else into what we were tryint to convey. Such walls would save numerous lives by protecting people from inadvertently falling, or from being pushed or from doing harm to themselves by jumping on to the tracks or in front of an approaching train.
Very nice, I understand what you’re saying about the walls now and I’d be all for that as well because it would also prevent the dozens of little kids from going to the edge to watch the train coming in. Thanks for the link!
Someone who is so distraught, depressed, whatever horrific state of mind it would take to jump in front of a train isn’t rational. I take great offense at hearing someone like that being described as “selfish.” I’ve lost someone I loved dearly to suicide and he was not a selfish person. He was out of his mind with pain.
I still disagree with the attacks on Sherman. He wrote two sentences. Those two sentences should not be presumed to be the sum of his thoughts and feelings about this sad incident.
I was on this line that morning and saw the usual high number of parents with small children. I wonder why children no longer ride school buses. I don’t remember subway trains being clogged with children years ago.
A majority of the kids I know have taken the MTA bus or subway to school, going all the way fback to the 1970’s. Some even came in from Brooklyn and 2 girls took the NJ Path Train in every morning. There are also a few rickety Atlantic school buses that bring kids from 23rd street up to Spence and Dalton. I can’t imagine that I would have been able to navigate around the city as a child the way they have but I suppose it’s all second nature to them, and they’re all experts on how to get around the city as adults now, while I’m still struggling with switching trains at Columbus Circle, lol
Sunny said: “I still disagree with the attacks on Sherman. He wrote two sentences. Those two sentences should not be presumed to be the sum of his thoughts and feelings about this sad incident.”
He wasn’t limited to two sentences, yet that’s all he thought fitting to post. Me-me-me-me-me.
Once again ,,, attacking someone, assuming you know the sum of his thoughts and feelings based on what he wrote.
How TRAGIC THAT THIS POOR SOUL COULD NOT FIND HELP INTHIS CITY.HOW AWFUL THAT HE DID NOT SEE ANOTHER SOLUTION TO HIS TROUBLES