Army vet saves drunken Irishman from New York subway death

Steps into harms way to save another

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Isidore Branham demonstrates his life-saving move.

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Harlem cabdriver Isidore Branham, 38, turned himself into a hero on Thursday at the 135th Street-Lenox Avenue station in Harlem on his way to work.

According to the New York Post, the Army vet, who is studying nursing, lifted an intoxicated man from the path of an oncoming subway train, risking his own life to pull the stranger to safety.

Timothy Moriarty, 57, got drunk and managed to find himself lying on the tracks, law-enforcement sources told the Post.

'This woman cried out, 'Oh, my God, somebody fell in the tracks!' Branham said. 'My instincts just came alive. All the training kicked in. I thought, I’m here. I can’t let this man die.'

Branham reportedly ran to the end of the 2-3 train platform where he discovered Moriarity lying between the tracks.

'We all started screaming because we saw the 2 train coming,' Branham's friend Twanna Jackson, 39, told the press.

But Branham still jumped into harms way to pull the heavy-set Moriarity out of harm's way.

'He was inside the railbed between the ties. I picked him up from his arms and dragged him across the rails,' he said. 'Once I got to the platform, I picked him up from the waist. I wanted to do a fireman’s carry but there was no time. The train was coming.

'I grabbed him by his belt. I scooped him up and pushed him on the platform. I curled him and lifted him in front of my body. This guy was really heavy. It was a shock to my body, but I was strong enough.'

A quick acting MTA clerk had alerted the conductor that someone was on the tracks, giving the train time to slow as ten women on the platform yelled to Branham to get off the tracks. But he didn't listen.

'I felt this man shouldn’t die this day, not while I knew I was capable. I was the man for the job. I used to work in transit. I’ve been on the tracks. I know how dangerous they are.

'About forty five seconds after I got him on the platform, the train passed by safely. I backed away when cops and EMS arrived.'

Moriarity was reportedly unconscious at a Harlem Hospital yesterday, with a black eye.

Police say he has an Upper East Side address, but the couple who live there insist he only stayed for a week several years ago. 'I don’t think he has a place to live,' the woman at the address, who grew up with Moriarity, told the Post.

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