'Her last words would have been to me'

The following comment came in reaction to the Metro Desk story on the quick-thinking MBTA personnel who saved a woman's life on the Orange Line on Friday:

Her last words would have been to me. I was waiting at the end of the platform to make sure I would get on the subway after the Celts game. She walked past me and asked "Are you going to be mad if I smoke a cigarette? I will go all the way to (the) end."

I said I didn't care and she walked all the way to the end. But she stood at the edge by the tunnel on the yellow line. I remember I heard the first ding of the "orange line is approaching." I finished a text message (in the video from the other angle, I am the one in the center looking down at my phone at first) then I hear people screaming as I watched her take her last steps before diving into the pit. It was not suicide. She clearly lost her balance and was too drunk to recover. However, nobody was close enough to grab her as she was trying not to get smoke on anyone. She was all by herself. No friends with her before or after the incident.

The train was there within 10-15 seconds of her falling in. In these pictures you can see the headlights are already there. I assumed she laid down so that the subway would go over her, but maybe she was just too drunk to get up.

It all went by so fast. In the end, there was just no time. I 100% thought I was going to have someone die right in front of me. It was the scariest moment. People were running away and screaming. I saw women crying.

I can't believe the girl is alive. I couldn't get any sleep Friday night over this. This is a situation I can't even handle in a movie, let alone right in front of me. Great job by the conductor, as she had almost no time to react. The people waving their arms on the yellow line really helped.

-- Mike Connolly, Walpole