NEW YORK, June 8 (UPI) -- A New York City woman pushed onto subway tracks by an apparently deranged man was saved by schoolmates from her English class, she said.
Patricia Villa, who lives in the Bronx, told the New York Daily News she was pushed from the platform at the Hunts Point Avenue station Tuesday night. She was returning home from an English as a second language class.
Villa, 49, who weighs 92 pounds, said a man came out of nowhere as she waited for a train.
"I just remember someone grabbing my head -- boom -- and then he twisted and threw me," Villa said Thursday.
Luis Polanco, who is in the same ESL class, said he went after the man and punched him in the back. But he gave up his pursuit when he heard other people yelling that a train was about to enter the station and instead returned to the tracks and grabbed Villa's hand.
Yisell Brazoban, another classmate, said she and others were calling to Villa, telling her to wake up.
Villa said she passed out briefly and came to hearing people yelling about a train. She was taken to Lincoln Hospital where she received staples to close a head cut.
Police had made no arrest as of Thursday.
In 2009, 90 people jumped, fell or were pushed onto subway tracks, with 40 being killed. About two months ago, Joshua Basin, a LaGuardia Community College student was killed when he fell while struggling with a drunk in a Brooklyn subway station.
