A Train Screeches To Halt To Avoid Hitting Man On Tracks At Nostrand Ave. Station, Witness Says

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A person who jumped in front of an A train in Brooklyn on Wednesday escaped death when the driver managed to stop before hitting him, a witness told Patch.

Cole Kennedy, 25, was riding home from work to Crown Heights in the front car of a Lefferts-bound A train at around 3 p.m., he told Patch. As the train was pulling into the Nostrand Avenue station, he said he noticed people on the platform in a panic.

Passengers at the front of the train started yelling, "Oh shoot he’s on the tracks," he said.

Kennedy said the train came screeching to a stop.

"From what I could tell, and what people were yelling, (a man) jumped before the train got in there (to the station)," Kennedy told Patch by phone just after he left the scene.

After the train stopped, Kennedy said, the man appeared to try to lie down on the third rail but the power was shut off. At that point, Kennedy said, the man started walking down the tunnel.

In the photo above, which Kennedy shared with Patch, people are staring into the tunnel where the man was walking.

Videos in the area posted to Snapchat's Snap Map show the man walking down the tracks into the tunnel, followed by police officers.

It's unclear what happened to the man — Kennedy said he left the station while the man was still being followed by authorities. Spokesmen for the NYPD and FDNY did not have any immediate information about the incident to share with Patch.

The MTA said A and C trains were running with delays because of an unauthorized person on the tracks.

Image courtesy Cole Kennedy