As a New Yorker of some 10ish years I have a few warranted fears:
All things that happen, all things that could kill you, and should any of these things happen if you were to survive you'd probably need speedy help from 911. Which has led me to always wonder how fast could help get to me in New York City with it's clogged streets and jam packed areas? Well, on Thursday night I found out.
Two weeks ago I signed up for a Storytelling class at the Magnet Theater, which has a training center on West 32nd street. This street happens to be one of my favorite streets because it's the heart of Koreatown, but it also happens to be perhaps one of the busiest streets at all hours of the day. The class is three hours long and finishes at 10pm. Instead of heading home, I had a craving for Tteokboki so I ducked into Food Gallery 32 for a little bit. Had I not gone in, or had I hung around just a little bit longer I might not have a story to tell.
I live in Jersey City, which is connected to Manhattan through a subway called the PATH that operates 24 hours. Much to every riders' dismay, after 11pm the PATH stops going direct to Jersey City and makes an additional stop in Hoboken where it sits for 5 full minutes. This might as well be an eternity. At 10:40 I decided it was time to leave the food place, and head to the PATH to catch one of the last direct trains.
The PATH shares a stairwell with the BDFM / NQR subway station. As I'm walking down the steps I noticed a guy a few steps ahead of me kind of walking like drunk cow. I've never seen a drunk cow, but this guy is what I imagine it would look like. Moments later the guy completely loses his footing and falls, face first down 5 or 6 stairs, but not first without slamming his face onto the giant cast iron gates that are in the middle of subway stairwells to close off the subway in off hours. He immediately got himself up with a help of another stranger and continued walking down the stairs.
As he was only a few feet ahead of me, I noticed a trail of dark red blood from the stairs leading toward this guy. His friend came up from behind and helped him stand straight up, but that's when I noticed the front of the guy was completely soaked in blood, it was all over the floor, and in his hair. I gave the friend all of the napkins I happened to have in my pocket, and other girls around me did the same with packages of tissues and other napkins. We had quite a bit, and they were all soaked through red in a matter of minutes. The guy's nose looked as though it was either broken, or at the very least in need of stitches. These few spots here are just what was accumulating even though we were applying pressure with napkins.
I looked up an urgent care thinking that they could walk a block to the one on Fifth Ave, but that wasn't possible, so I dialed 911. Though it was funny because I asked the friend, "Do you want me to call someone?" and he replied, "If you're OK with that, yes please!' What an odd response.
Thankfully I had service in the station (which is a rarity around NYC). I gave all the information as to where we were... the NW corner of 32nd and Broadway under Greenley Square. Hung up with 911 and then the police called me. One thing to know is when they call you it comes from a weird number -- 111-222-3333. I almost didn't answer thinking it was a spam call. Even though I had given them directions, the police / EMS weren't able to find us. I then described exactly where we were... in the stations, but before the turnstiles, across from the Metrocard kiosks, directly at the bottom of the stairs beneath the Empanada stand. I suppose it pays to be super aware of your surroundings.
The whole thing from making the call to me talking to the police took about 5 minutes. Once they heard my part of the story, they said I could go, and I ended up making my pre-11pm train that skips Hoboken and goes directly home.
No idea what happened to the guy and his friend, but at least I learned how long it would take emergency services to get to me in one of the busiest parts of the city.
- Falling through one of those metal trap doors on the sidewalks that lead into store basements
- Getting randomly hit from above with a falling air conditioner
- Being pushed off of a subway platform
All things that happen, all things that could kill you, and should any of these things happen if you were to survive you'd probably need speedy help from 911. Which has led me to always wonder how fast could help get to me in New York City with it's clogged streets and jam packed areas? Well, on Thursday night I found out.
Two weeks ago I signed up for a Storytelling class at the Magnet Theater, which has a training center on West 32nd street. This street happens to be one of my favorite streets because it's the heart of Koreatown, but it also happens to be perhaps one of the busiest streets at all hours of the day. The class is three hours long and finishes at 10pm. Instead of heading home, I had a craving for Tteokboki so I ducked into Food Gallery 32 for a little bit. Had I not gone in, or had I hung around just a little bit longer I might not have a story to tell.
I live in Jersey City, which is connected to Manhattan through a subway called the PATH that operates 24 hours. Much to every riders' dismay, after 11pm the PATH stops going direct to Jersey City and makes an additional stop in Hoboken where it sits for 5 full minutes. This might as well be an eternity. At 10:40 I decided it was time to leave the food place, and head to the PATH to catch one of the last direct trains.
The PATH shares a stairwell with the BDFM / NQR subway station. As I'm walking down the steps I noticed a guy a few steps ahead of me kind of walking like drunk cow. I've never seen a drunk cow, but this guy is what I imagine it would look like. Moments later the guy completely loses his footing and falls, face first down 5 or 6 stairs, but not first without slamming his face onto the giant cast iron gates that are in the middle of subway stairwells to close off the subway in off hours. He immediately got himself up with a help of another stranger and continued walking down the stairs.
As he was only a few feet ahead of me, I noticed a trail of dark red blood from the stairs leading toward this guy. His friend came up from behind and helped him stand straight up, but that's when I noticed the front of the guy was completely soaked in blood, it was all over the floor, and in his hair. I gave the friend all of the napkins I happened to have in my pocket, and other girls around me did the same with packages of tissues and other napkins. We had quite a bit, and they were all soaked through red in a matter of minutes. The guy's nose looked as though it was either broken, or at the very least in need of stitches. These few spots here are just what was accumulating even though we were applying pressure with napkins.I looked up an urgent care thinking that they could walk a block to the one on Fifth Ave, but that wasn't possible, so I dialed 911. Though it was funny because I asked the friend, "Do you want me to call someone?" and he replied, "If you're OK with that, yes please!' What an odd response.
Thankfully I had service in the station (which is a rarity around NYC). I gave all the information as to where we were... the NW corner of 32nd and Broadway under Greenley Square. Hung up with 911 and then the police called me. One thing to know is when they call you it comes from a weird number -- 111-222-3333. I almost didn't answer thinking it was a spam call. Even though I had given them directions, the police / EMS weren't able to find us. I then described exactly where we were... in the stations, but before the turnstiles, across from the Metrocard kiosks, directly at the bottom of the stairs beneath the Empanada stand. I suppose it pays to be super aware of your surroundings.
The whole thing from making the call to me talking to the police took about 5 minutes. Once they heard my part of the story, they said I could go, and I ended up making my pre-11pm train that skips Hoboken and goes directly home.
No idea what happened to the guy and his friend, but at least I learned how long it would take emergency services to get to me in one of the busiest parts of the city.