Ever wonder what it’s like to fall on the third rail? Just ask Andy Morris, who was thrown onto the tracks in East New York: “He first started twitching and then you started seeing smoke coming from his head.” Ouch.
Morris, “a down-on-his-luck construction worker”, got into a drunken fight on Monday with two other men that lasted for about 10 stops on the A train. According to the Daily News, the brawl moved onto a station platform and Morris was tossed onto the tracks allegedly by an onlooker.
He first started twitching and then you started seeing smoke coming from his head,” said Marlon Probherbs, 23. “You could smell the flesh burning.”
I just heard a commotion,” said Probherbs, of Brooklyn. “Then I saw him go flying off the platform and he went face-first onto the third rail.
No arrests have been made, and Morris is recovering in the hospital. He told the paper that his “fingers are fried”. [NYDN]
Republished from Gawker.
Matt L
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 9:27 AM“Andy Morris hit an electrocuted third rail…” Electrocuted means death by electricity… What is meant is – He “hit an electrified third rail”
matt h
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 10:38 AMI don’t get why they don’t just electrify overhead wires like we do. You can touch all the rails you like then, no circuit. What’s the advantage?
Captain Pajama Shark
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 1:42 PMI’m not sure, but I think it’s a case of “well, it’d just be to damn expensive to change the entire countries train line system”.
Probably why they still use imperial measurements also.
Frogztar
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 2:09 PMNo more drunk construction workers?
Bern
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 3:20 PMHistorical reasons, mainly – that’s how they built the first electrified railways, and as Cpt PJ Shark said, it’d be quite expensive to change over.
Especially when you consider that many of the subway tunnels would not actually have enough room above the trains for an overhead pantograph system.
Parker
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 11:55 PMIt’s to do with the tunnel width.
To implement Overhead wires, the tunnels have to be around 1m wider to accommodate for the mounting mechanisms.
Also, It would mean re-designing the whole transport infrastructure.
Platform screen doors would be a better solution, such at the MTR in Hong Kong.
matt h
Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 10:58 AMThanks Bern. It does seem weird that the American ones would have come before the overhead system. I might do some research… very interesting. Although it could also be a clever combination of town planning and the Darwin Awards in full effect…
Chris Rigg
Friday, September 10, 2010 at 5:03 PM“If it ain’t broke then don’t try to fix it”
Will Smith