Good Samaritan hit by train in NYC

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NEW YORK, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A man was critically injured when he was hit by a train in New York City while helping another man to safety, police say.

The Staten Island Advance reported the 39-year-old man was hit by the Tottenville-bound Staten Island Railway train bound in New York's New Dorp neighborhood about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz told the newspaper the victim was trying to help a drunken man who had climbed down onto the tracks to retrieve his shoe.

"This good Samaritan apparently went down to assist him, and unfortunately was struck by a train," Ortiz said.

The intoxicated man, whose name wasn't given but was described by police as 40 years old, was not seriously injured.

The New York Daily News reported the hero is Steven Santiago.

"He is a great man who risked his life to save someone he doesn't even know," his 42-year-old brother Edwin told the Daily News.

"He is in a pretty bad shape right now. I leave it in God's hands."