An unidentified woman was traveling on the No. 4 train on the New York City subway on Tuesday, just after noon. As the train pulled in at the Woodlawn station in the Bronx, a man in another train spotted the woman, with her head firmly stuck in the doors. Amazed at the fact that no one was going to her assistance, he took video footage of the incident and posted it on Instagram. In that video the woman can be seen just standing there, looking around, and possibly asking for help, while holding a shopping bag in her hand, which can be seen dangling outside the Subway Car doors.
Subway car arrives at the final stop in the Bronx
As reported by the New York Post, it turned out that the train was arriving at its final stop and all the other passengers had already left the car. When the woman found herself alone on the train and realized what had happened, she ran to the door to try and get out before it closed. However, she was moments too late and the subway car doors did close, catching her head along the way.
The video footage found its way onto the internet on Wednesday, when @theshaderoom posted it to his or her Instagram account. Since then the video footage of the incident has gone viral, with many commenters shocked at the commuters who just strolled past the woman without stopping to help her.
Commenters noted that a female MTA worker also seemed to pass the woman by.
Nobody Stops To Help Woman With Head Stuck In New York Subway Doors https://t.co/r06zaJO318 pic.twitter.com/fZRCKtYdf4
— Daily Job Alert (@Daily_Job_Alert) April 6, 2017
MTA worker to the rescue of the stuck woman
However, the New York Daily News reports that the MTA told them that the worker did return to help the woman.
In fact, she was at the time heading down the platform to ask the conductor to open the doors. She then returned to where the woman was standing, using a key to open the subway car doors and finally freeing her. When the MTA worker asked the woman if she required medical assistance, the woman reportedly declined it, saying she was fine.
Beth DeFalco, a spokeswoman for the MTA, said that while it was an unfortunate incident, the woman was able to escape safely from the subway car doors with assistance from the operator. Fortunately, because the doors were not completely closed, the train was unable to leave the station.
Readers can watch the footage below, which has since been copied and posted to YouTube. Apart from the MTA worker, who we now know did help the woman, the number of people that just pass her by without even seeing her is shocking.
It seems to be a sign of the times, however. As noted in an unrelated story on Blasting News where a woman was group raped on Facebook Live, psychologists call this the “bystanders’ effect.” Reportedly the higher the number of people watching what is going on, the less likely anyone is to do anything about it. Everyone just assumes someone else will do something. Maybe that was the case here too.
