I was impressed by the bystanders in the video. A man almost instantly jumped down onto the tracks to help them and several people rushed over to assist in hauling everybody to safety. The whole rescue was a matter of seconds.
They get so close to the third rail, wow.
That could have been very nasty.
Sometime we experience weird perceptual glitches. One time I ran a red light because I confused the green light for the cross traffic with my own. I saw my light was red, and stopped. While I was stopped I glanced to the left, saw the green light for the traffic going the other way, and somehow my brain fused both perceptions. I “saw” my light turn green and pulled forward into the intersection, narrowly avoiding a huge accident. I was totally at fault, but afterwards I would have sworn that I saw my light turn. It was the weirdest thing, and ever since I’ve been extra careful to make sure a green light really is a green light.
I can easily imagine something similar happening to the woman in the video.
I’d say she was distracted or overwhelmed, had poor depth perception, or just wasn’t wearing her glasses.
Getting there, but that’s beside the point.
If I maximize the screen, I can see the child after they fall. Before that, the kid was pretty hidden.
Here’s a recent incident on the DC Metro where a woman tried to cross the tracks to catch the train in the opposite direction. She only made it halfway across before getting hung up on the lighted median (between the third rails!). She waited there until rescue.
Best comment from the blog: “Oh Zooey Deschanel. Your whimsy will be the death of you.”
I came to post this. Not being a huge fan of humans in general (sorry, watching a lot of Futurama), it was nice to see people reacting to help someone in trouble in, as mentioned, mere seconds.
We’re all dumbasses – once in a while. I know I’ve done some amazingly stupid things. Fortunately, very rarely.
That was my thought, too. That is the shallowest subway platform I’ve ever seen. If your view of the ground was blocked, and you weren’t familiar with the station, I can totally see how you would head right for the train in front of you and walk off into thin air.
they said both mum and child were back on the platform with in 10 seconds. that is fantastic timing.
also poor tyke was inches from the 3rd rail.
very lucky that all they had were bruises.
I think the plants have started to emit some sort of pheromone that causes people to not want to survive. I think we should ask Marky Mark.
This third rail thing doesn’t sound very safe. Why is that allowed? Here in Australia it’s all overhead wires, so it’s perfectly safe to be on the tracks - which is good as we need to cross them all the time to get to the platforms.
I actually don’t know too much about the weather in australia but I’m given to believe all major cities in Australia are in warm climates. Boston is cold, windy, and stormy. Average snowfall in the winter is almost 4 feet (a meter and change). Overhead wires are downed by rain, storms, snow, hurricanes. Wires would be impractical, and, they are also considered an eyesore. There’s never any need to cross a track on a subway system - the tracks are below grade anyway, as you can see in te video, it’s impossible to get down and up without assistance.
Third rail electricity is used in all east coast rapid transit systems I can think of. Its actually completely safe since a passenger should never be on the tracks for any reason.
The third rail doesn’t have to be continuous (the gap just has to be shorter than the trains), so it’s still possible to have grade crossings. In Chicago, they put something like a cattle guard on either side of road crossings to keep people from walking out into the electrified area.
I see. Yes, Australia is generally temperate. Parts of the country are affected by cyclones, aka hurricanes, but otherwise even the worst storms are infrequent and mild. Except for bushfires, but the country trains are all diesel.
Not really.
Mostly but not entirely true. The Green Line, a lot of which is the original rail transit system that existed when they started digging the subway tunnels in the first place, turns into streetcar service at both extremes. The tracks run across and occasionally in the medians of some fairly major streets. The wires are overhead for obvious reasons; in Park Street Over, in fact, there is a section where you’re allowed to walk straight across the tracks to get from the center platform to the side with the bodega and the stairs leading to Under. Cambridge also has some bus lines that run on catenary wires, mostly between Harvard and Lechmere.
The Red is underground for most of its length, although it emerges into open air to cross the Longfellow Bridge and en route to Quincy; Red Line trains are almost entirely in railroad cuts, however, which are fenced off or in ditches or otherwise not likely to be accidentally walked over. The Orange is also aboveground for part of its length, and the Blue for most of it, but they’re el service rather than ground-level, and the tracks are on their own trestles.
As mentioned, Kendall is a little baffling. The platforms are very narrow, almost enough to make you nervous, and the median between the tracks seems to be slightly heftier than normal, probably because of an art installation (wind chimes! no kidding) hung from the ceiling. The platforms also aren’t completely offset, like other stations.
If it helps any, it would be very easy for an uninjured person to get off the tracks at most of the MBTA stations – there are well-marked ladders at both ends of the platform, painted in flaming safety yellow. In most of the split-platform stations, the median also has openings that can be walked through at track level, and there is enough space to stand there without being whacked by a train from either side, if it’s a dire enough emergency to try it. Ellen Cherry may also rest assured that no MBTA train has ever whizzed by anything at 4000 mph. Some days, it’s a trial to get them moving at all. 
At 0:20 she’s seen entering the turnstiles, carrying the child, and stops and turns behind her (looking away from the track) and reaches back for something someone hands to her. She’s talking with that person (off screen) for a while, until at 0:33 she turns and goes onto the platform. From there she takes 6 or 7 purposeful strides as if she’s approaching the train on the other side. At 0:36, she falls off.
Perhaps it’s a combination of things leading to a “brain fart”:
[ul]
[li]the turnstile conversation momentarily distracted her (what was the nature of that somewhat lengthy conversation?); if distracted, these other factors can come together to contribute to her fall[/li][li]the turnstile conversation delayed her. The train was already there when she entered the turnstile so she might think she has to hustle to board it. But her eyesight isn’t keen enough to notice the doors facing her are closed, and that they were never opened.[/li][li]if that station is narrower than most (as Motorgirl said), and if she’s someone who has used the subway system a little bit, but not frequently, then she can reasonably expect to walk further for her train than is required at that station. Could be a problem in the design of that station, and a design change could be in order. Anyway, because of this, I don’t think she’s a visitor or is new to the city. I think she has ridden the subway a few times, but not frequently.[/li][li]the platform is clearly marked with the bright yellow paint - is she color blind/challenged, and the yellow paint blends into the light colored platform?[/li][li]her peripheral vision doesn’t pick up the fact that several people are standing at the yellow line, and they form a visual barrier or line of sorts[/li][li]her child blocks some of what she can see[/li][li]her eyesight isn’t that good[/li][/ul]
My wife’s vision isn’t that good (it’s much worse than mine, anyway) and such scenarios worry me. I worry that something similar can happen to her.
But the train doors are not open from her side. If she’d been right and the train was on her side of the track, she would have walked right into a metal wall at that brisk pace. And you can see that, even if you’re nearsighted. And people do not walk into the sides of trains, they aim for an open door.
Her “explanation” is transparently false. Maybe she was in some sort of mental fugue state and wasn’t thinking about the platform at all; maybe it was a suicide attempt; maybe she’s a dumbass. But she was NOT trying to board the train.
I think it’s possible. See above.