A Bronx woman who was struck and killed by a subway on the Lexington Avenue line had recently struggled with fainting spells, her family tells NBC New York.
Fatoumata Diallo, 21, passed out Wednesday and fell onto the tracks of a northbound 5 train at the 77th Street station. The train struck her and she could not be saved.
Diallo was a student studying medicine at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Her family says she has fainted at least three times in the last three months, the first time at her father's house.
“A few weeks later she fainted at her friend’s house. [Today] was the third time,” Binta Laly Diallo, the victim’s sister, said Wednesday.
The third time was fatal. Nicole Katzender, a passenger on the train that hit Diallo, heard the impact and then saw the expressions on faces of commuters on the platform.
“Immediately we realized that somebody got hit, because we saw the reaction of the people," Katzender said.
After learning her sister's most recent fainting spell led to the young woman’s death by subway, Binta Laly Diallo had trouble finding words to explain her loss.
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"It’s not easy for us. She was always smiling. She loved her family," she said.
This isn't the first deadly accident to happen at the 77th Street station. Last March, Rose Mankos, a 48-year-old lawyer from Manhattan, was killed by a train when she reached down onto the tracks to retrieve a bag.
A spokesperson for the MTA said the train conductor and operator were taken in for routine drug and alcohol testing.
