JULY 31 -- Train Operator Eric Boyo – and by extension all transit workers – received some well-deserved positive press on a grand scale this week. Television reporters from ABC, CBS, NBC, NY1 and WPIX11 – along with print reporters from The New York Daily News and AMNY – attended a press conference that Local 100 convened on Tuesday to showcase Boyo for saving a woman who jumped to the G-train tracks late Monday afternoon.
Boyo, who was approaching the Fulton St. station at about 37 miles per hour, alertly observed a rider on the platform urgently waving at him. He started to slow down and then activated the emergency brakes when he saw the woman on the tracks in front of him. The woman had jumped to the tracks moments earlier in an apparent suicide attempt, authorities said. Boyo’s train came to halt approximately 75 to 100 feet from the woman, he told reporters. He then calmly helped her up to the platform with assistance from riders.
“My biggest concern was, ‘Is this person OK?’ ” Boyo told the flock of reporters. Asked if he considered himself a hero, Boyo humbly said, “We’re just doing our jobs…this is what we do.”
RTO Vice President Eric Loegel and Train Operators Chairman Zachary Arcidiacono, however, proudly and correctly declared Boyo a hero. “I want to commend Train Operator Boyo for his heroic acts,” Loegel said. “His professionalism, diligence and compassion saved a woman’s life. While something like this may seem remarkable, for a man like Eric and for our transit workers as a whole, like he said, this is what we do. These sorts of things are not always noticed, but this is reflective of the kind of person that he is and the kind of workforce we have as New York City transit workers. Arcidiacono said: “His alertness, his quick reaction time, his professionalism, his calm demeanor, is what our Train Operators and train crews bring to the job every day.”
