James Muriel was the motorman behind the train that fatally hit 61-year-old Wai Kuen Kwok at the 167th Street station in the Bronx Sunday when he was pushed by another man. In an interview with NBC 4 New York Tuesday, Muriel describes trying to stop the train as soon as he saw a "flying" body, and his plea for passengers to stay away from the edge of the subway platform. Portions of the interview have been lightly edited.
The day started off as a beautiful Sunday morning. I had nine hours of sleep, I was eager to get to work because Sunday is my easy job, and the day goes by fast. I like to work the weekends because there's less people out there. No one is holding doors, people get in, people get off.
I got to work at 7:00. I made up my train, I left the terminal up on time, I got into the next stop. My regulars waved hi to me. I continued on the road as any other normal quiet Sunday.
When I got to 167, I had about three cars in the station when I suddenly see something fly though the air. It was about 10 feet in front of me. I knew it wasn't a suicide. Usually with a suicide, they go straight down -- they jump down either foot first or head first. This guy had velocity as he flew over the platform. That's how I knew he was pushed.
I immediately applied the brakes -- it's called brakes in emergency -- I put the brakes in emergency. I heard people yelling and crying, and I reached the body -- he was still airborne -- and when I hit the body, he had just went under.
The train finally came to a stop some 300 to 400 feet later because of the momentum of the train. It's a 1,000-ton train. The train doesn't stop like a vehicle, you just can't slam on the brakes and it'll stop two, three feet. I need between 300 to 400 feet to stop the train.
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I called it in, I called for assistance immediately. Protocol states that I must descend to the roadbed to give the control center the condition of the passenger.
As I was making my way out the door, my eyes welled up. Passengers had to help me out the cab. My legs got heavy, I couldn't even walk. Because I knew the next step was to go down to the track, look underneath the train and hope that the victim was still alive.
When I got to the third car, I see the body underneath the train. I tried very hard not to look at the face, because the last incident I had, I looked at the individual's face and that image haunts me to this day.
I didn't touch the body because the power was still on and I was afraid the body was still electrified. I noticed that his arm was crushed and his hands were laying on the floor, and I also noticed his leg was crushed, or all the wheel was sitting on his leg. Because he was facedown, I really didn't know if it was male or female.
I knew he was gone. I yelled out, there was no response. There wasn't really much that I could do for him. So I have an update to the transit authority, they turned off power. Police, EMS and FDNY were en route already.
I ascended back up to the platform. The victim's wife, she threw herself on me and she began to cry hysterically and she begged me to help her and she asked me to call somebody. I told her help was en route.
I asked several of the passengers if they witnessed anything, if he jumped or if he got pushed but no one knew. It was when police finally arrived four minutes later, someone came forward that another passenger had pushed him on to the tracks.
When I was interviewing people on the platform trying to find out if the perpetrator was still on the platform, everybody just began to cry. I mean everybody. Women, grown men, just everybody. It's just something that you feel. It's bad.
I've been a motorman 16 years, I have 23 years with the transit authority. This is the third time. The one before this one, the gentleman had dropped something on the tracks and went to retrieve it.
It's very important that the family gets some type of justice. Just take the guy off the streets so he won't hurt anyone else. The guy probably has some mental issues because anyone in their right mind won't push anyone on the tracks.
But these type of incidents will not stop unless the public stops waiting for the train at the edge of the platform. That's something they normally do, they think that the train's gonna get there faster, they think they're gonna get a seat. If they would only leave their house 15 minutes earlier, there would be no rush to get on the train.
Because of cellphones and MP3 players, everybody has their headphones on or they're looking at the screen of their cellphones. They're not alert of their surroundings. You don't have to be pushed to wind up on the tracks. You could just be bumped and you could lose your balance.
I kind of take it one day at a time. I don't rush. It's always on my mind. I can't seem to shake it off. I try to do days that keeps me happy so I don't fall into a depression like I did the last time. I was on medication, I was seeing a medical doctor, a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
It just keeps looping in my mind, over and over again.
-- As told to Marc Santia
