Man Crushed By #4 Train At Union Square Station
NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- It was horror underground!
A subway rider was crushed between the train and the platform, helplessly pinned for nearly 30 minutes.
But as CBS 2's John Slattery reports, the victim's condition is slightly improving.
The photos published by the New York Post show the subway rider's agony as he withstands the pain of being crushed between a subway train and the platform, at a spot where a hydraulic extension comes out of the platform.
The shocking incident happened Friday night at Union Square station involving a number 4 downtown train. A 41-year-old actor, Michael Dion, fell between the train and the platform just as the extension came out.
You may have seen these platform extenders that extend from the platform to fill the gap, and doing so with hydraulic force.
Despite the efforts of passengers and emergency crews, it took 30 minutes before the hydraulic line was located, cut and the victim was freed.
Dion has appeared in several independent movies, including this one called "Vacationland." He lives in a building just west of Times Square where no one was home on Monday.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital's surgical intensive care, where on Monday afternoon his condition was upgraded to "serious."
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority issued the following statement:
"Gap fillers are in use at the curved southbound express and local platforms on the Lexington Avenue line and on one track of the shuttle at Times Square. Announcements are made warning customers to be careful of the gap fillers."
Other subway passengers expressed concern over the platform extensions.
"I don't go near it," one person said.
"You come here to take the train, not to get crushed by the floor," another said.
It was a terrible accident compounded by no quick way to release the extender.
The gap fillers have been used in the subway system for decades. They are also used at stations on the Long Island Rail Road.
