Two Irish soccer fans saved from death on subway tracks in Times Square

Strangers leap in to save inebriated Irish fans after they fell off platform

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Irish soccer fan saved from the subway tracks at Time Square on Sunday evening

Photo by Raphael Orlove/Jalopnik

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Two Irish soccer fans who were inebriated and fell onto the tracks at Times Square in New York late on Sunday night were saved when perfect strangers jumped down on to the track and pulled them to safety.

The latter part of the rescue was witnessed by a reporter, Raphael Orlove for the web site Jalopnik.com who wrote about it on the site.

He wrote that “The last thing I want is any drama but the first thing I see is a couple of people in street clothes lifting a body up from the tracks on the opposite side, then scrambling and jumping up onto the platform itself."

He explains that the two inebriated fans toppled in and “two brave strangers ignored all safety recommendations and jumped in after them.”

The Irish couple had been watching the Ireland-Croatia game in Manhattan and were returning to Yonkers.

Apparently they and some other Irish fans had been “horsing around” waiting for the train to come when they both toppled over onto the tracks.

Orlove wrote “There is a young girl, practically my age, who is lying flat on her back wearing a green shirt (Go Ireland!) and this intensely bright shade of red lipstick. Her friends and some strangers were standing over her, fanning her, keeping her awake. I feel like I have to go over there to help even though I have no kind of special training or any skills that'll actually help anyone.

"I look at the girl soccer fan and I realize she doesn't have red lipstick — that's blood.

"Her hand is bleeding, too, and there are thick grease marks over her arms and her head where she fell. Her friend in orange is fanning her, and so is a fit black guy in a white shirt.”

The black guy he discovers is the person along with one other who saved the girl  and her male companion who is unhurt but dazed.

He heard the commotion when he arrived at the track and saw the girl on the tracks out cold.

"For a minute you just think 'Jesus Christ.' And I didn't even think, he tells the reporter,  “You don't even think and I jumped down. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. Because I remember when I used to get...twisted…and I just wanted to help.

“It's not even a color thing! That's what's great about New York. We can shove each other on the subway, but when it comes down to it, we just get down to it…And I felt like I was already taking too long!"

He and another man who had already left lifted them off the tracks and onto the platform just before a train arrived.

The girl and her friends were from Yonkers, a strong Irish neighborhood near The Bronx one of them told an officer filling out a report.

Orlove reports that “The girl is sitting up, finally, and she gives a weak smile. "I'm fine!" she says.

Orlove comments “It is very much not my plan to ever fall onto subway tracks, but if I do I hope I'm in New York and I hope I'm surrounded by strangers.”

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