The man pushed onto New York's subway tracks says he will ride again

[January 25, 2025]  NEW YORK (AP) — A man who survived being shoved onto subway tracks ahead of an oncoming train said that in spite of the physical and psychological trauma, he eventually plans to make his way back to the train.

“This city is my home,” Joseph Lynskey told The New York Times in an interview published Friday, “and I won’t be intimidated."

Lynskey, 45, was standing on the platform in the West 18th Street station in Manhattan after lunch on New Year's Eve when a hard shove from behind sent him flying as a 1 train approached.

“My life did not flash before my eyes,” he said. “My thought was ‘I’ve been pushed, and I’m going to get hit by the train.’ ”

Lynskey landed on his left side between the tracks. He had four broken ribs, a fractured skull, a ruptured spleen and a concussion. But that wasn't all.

“I looked up, and I was underneath the 1 train,” he said during the interview in the Brooklyn apartment he shares with his 16-year-old dachshund, Leo.

Police called the attack, which was captured on surveillance video, random. A 23-year-old man, Kamel Hawkins, was arrested later that day. He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges.

The possibility of being pushed onto the tracks is a long-running nightmare for many New Yorkers. While it occurs rarely compared to the millions of rides each day, a push this past March killed a person in East Harlem.

Lynskey's ordeal has left him convinced city and state officials need to do more to address the violence on a system that is vital to New York.

“The subway is the lifeline of this city,” he said. “I don’t think any New Yorker should have to stand against a wall or hold on to a pillar to feel safe as the train approaches.”

“Unacceptable," he added. "Do better. Protect your citizens.”

Amid the shove and other high-profile attacks, Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for an increase in police presence on subways at night and an expansion of the state’s involuntary commitment laws to allow hospitals to compel more mentally ill people into treatment.

Lynskey has lived in New York for 25 years and is the head of content and music programming at Gray V, a company that creates background music and playlists for businesses. He performs as a DJ under the stage name DJ Joe Usher, the newspaper said.

Subway riders stand near yellow barriers on a platform of the 7 train in New York on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)

He had met friends for lunch the afternoon of Dec. 31 and had planned to catch an express train back to Brooklyn to get ready for a New Year's Eve party later that day. His plans changed at the entrance to the 18th Street station, when he decided to get out of the cold and take the approaching local 1 for one stop and then transfer.

He said he was on the platform for under a minute and had glanced quickly at Spotify on his phone when “I felt the hardest shove.”

Under the train, he knew the third rail just inches away could electrocute him so he kept as still as possible as he screamed for help: "I’ve been pushed! Someone, please, please help me!’”

“Absolute chaos” from the platform followed as emergency workers arrived on the scene, he recalled. Two firefighters lowered themselves under the train and told Lynskey to remain perfectly still so that neither he nor they would be electrocuted.

“We need to get you the hell out,” Lynskey recalled their saying before they dragged him out by his arms.

Lynskey spent a week in the hospital. Since then, he has been been working with physical therapists and welcoming visitors while recuperating. He struggles to sleep because of his pain and although he has tried to avoid rewatching the surveillance video, Lynskey said it was the first video TikTok's algorithm showed him two days after the attack.

Now, weeks later, he said he is focusing on the positive, even finding moments of humor.

“When I was under the train, I thought a lot about my family and my life,” he said. “I also was thinking, ‘I guess I’m not going to Armando’s ‘Wicked’ New Year’s Eve party.’ ”

He believes his life was spared for a reason. “Being of service is something I really plan on focusing on for the next part of my life,” he said.

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