An inspirational story

An extremely brave man, Wesley Autry, a construction worker from Harlem, watched as a convulsing stranger toppled onto the rail tracks in New York’s subway system. A train was roaring towards the man and, without a moment’s thought, he leapt onto the line and pinned the stricken stranger to a groove between the tracks while the train passed over their heads with only centimeters to spare. At the end of it all Autry’s concern was for his young daughters who were waiting on the platform above – ‘let them know their dad’s OK’, he said.

Autry modestly denied hero status after the incident and says that what he did frightened him ex post. But his impulse was magnificent – a real hero.