Quick-thinking subway motorman hailed for saving a life

On Saturday morning, Francis Lusk hit the brakes - and saved a life.

Lusk, a Valley Stream resident, was the motorman on a subway train that was nearing a station when he saw a woman fall from the platform onto the tracks.

The train on the N line was nearing the platform at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street about 7 a.m., he said, when he saw the woman about 300 feet away. "She literally walked off the edge" of the platform, he said. "It shocked the hell out of me."

Lusk said he hit the brakes and blasted the train's horn to warn other passengers on the platform not to jump onto the tracks. The train came to a complete stop about 70 feet from the woman, he said.

He called the radio control center to arrange for the electric current on the tracks to be shut off, then got off the train and walked to the woman. "She was conscious when I got to her," he said. "I kept talking to her."

Police and paramedics arrived a few minutes later.

Sunday morning, Lusk, 36, was back at work. "I don't feel like a hero," he said in the late afternoon, after completing his eight-hour shift. "I did what they trained me to do. I didn't think it was that big a deal."

But his quick thinking made him the center of attention. Passengers snapped cell-phone pictures of him, and co-workers sent him text messages of congratulations.

"It's just a total shock to me," Lusk said.

In a statement, Tom Prendergast, president of NYC Transit, praised Lusk for making a fast, lifesaving decision. "Thanks to the quick-thinking actions of one of our employees, this incident, which could have had very tragic consequences, instead had a very happy ending," the statement said. "Train Operator Lusk's split-second action is to be commended. He truly saved this customer's life. I think I speak for the entire NYC Transit family when I say, 'job well done' Train Operator Lusk.'

Lusk credited the train's conductor for a smooth evacuation of the passengers and emergency personnel for responding quickly. "I didn't think it was a big deal," he said of his own actions.

As he spoke, though, a family of four pointed at him and started snapping pictures. "That was a beautiful thing," said Daniel Brown, 48, of Manhattan. "We need more people like him."

Meanwhile, Lusk - who said he has another early-morning shift Monday - has been deluged by media requests and congratulatory phone calls and text messages.

"I've never had anything quite like this happen to me," he said.