NJ Man Slips Under SEPTA Train

TRENTON, NJ An elderly Mercer County man is lucky to be alive after falling between the cars of a SEPTA train. It happened Tuesday afternoon at the train station in Trenton. 78-year-old Leon Cohen of Lawrenceville was returning from a visit to Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia when SEPTA train 733 pulled up at the platform in Trenton at about 1pm. He surely never imagined that seconds later he`d be under that train.

Emergency crews rushed to Track 5 at the Trenton train station responding to reports that 78 year old Leon Cohen had fallen off the platform and on to the tracks.

Captain Henry Gliottone/Trenton Fire Department: "As he was coming off the train he lost his balance and fell backwards. He fell in between both train cars and he was trapped right there."

Officials quickly cut the power to the train as police, firefighters and EMTs assessed Cohen`s condition and prepared to remove him from under the train. Jim Hutchinson/EMT: "He had enough clearance, he was between 2 sets of wheels. Little tight quarters."

Cohen`s distraught wife, Rachel, was with him when he fell and watched the emergency crews work to free her husband.

Rachel Cohen/wife: "We were getting off the train and he maybe lost his balance. I don`t know, I was right behind him."

"I was down there. He`ll be fine," chimed in good Samaritan Kitty Reilly, a nurse who was on the train. She bravely jumped down on the tracks to keep Cohen company until rescuers arrived--and then comforted his wife.

Kitty Reilly/nurse: "I just made sure that he was still talking and he`s fine, he`ll be fine."

Eventually rescuers were able to get Leon Cohen onto a back board and slide him from under the train. He was then put on a stretcher and taken to Capital Health System at Fuld.

Ray Krajcsovics/EMT: "He`s caught between 2 very big trains. If those trains had started moving? He probably wouldn`t be with us today."

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News