Straphangers were terrified last night by a woman being shoved to her death in front of an oncoming train – and said they travel underground fearful they may be the next victim.
“It’s definitely scary. Whether it’s day or night, you never know who’s standing next to you,” said Althea Guzman, 29, who was waiting for the subway on the same platform at 23rd Street and Broadway where Kendra Webdale stood just hours earlier.
“It does make me consider not taking the train. But there’s crazies everywhere. You could get hit by a car walking across the street. You could get shot … Anything could happen.”
Gene Herbert, a 70-year-old security guard, said he’s come to accept the danger as a fact of straphanger life.
“It can definitely happen. You’ve got to keep aware, because that’s what you’ve got to put up with in the subways,” said Herbert, who was also at the station. “You have to watch your back.”
At the bustling Times Square N and R platform, other riders said they’ve worked out safety precautions to try to prevent every New Yorker’s worst nightmare from happening to them.
“You have to walk on the inside” of the yellow lines, said Michelle Vella, 18, a college student from Queens.
“You’re not supposed to walk along the orange and yellow lines … I get scared if someone walks past me and just elbows me.”
Margit Toss, 25, also of Queens, agreed, saying she tries to avoid the trains if it’s nighttime.
“If it’s really late, I try to take a cab,” she said.
“I think about [getting pushed] if it’s a crowded platform,” said 31-year-old Gabe Gordon, a researcher at HBO.
“I usually make sure I’m not close to the edge of the platform. I stand about 6 feet from the edge.”
Yoko Terada, a 27-year-old student from Japan who is attending LaGuardia Community College in Queens, said:
“I am afraid. New York is a dangerous place.
“The Japanese guidebook about New York says this kind of thing happens very often,” she said.
Sondra McClain, 36, of The Bronx, said:
“I have a fear of [getting shoved]. Too many people play around, especially the young kids. I stay as far away from the edge [of the platform] as possible.
“You just stay very aware of your surroundings,” she added. It’s sad, because you don’t want to always have your guard up.”
Michael Stewart, a 33-year-old computer technician from The Bronx, said he usually makes sure he’s standing directly in front of something, so no one can come up from behind and shove him.
But he pointed out that “being a man, it’s a little different.
“You watch your back anyway, but it’s something you have to be aware of,” he said.
Alexis Ivanoff, a 21-year-old student visting from Michigan, said the fear of plunging from the platform plagues him.
“I always think about that kind of stuff,” he said. “I never get very close [to the platform edge]. I stand almost to the wall.”
Still, he said, sometimes caution doesn’t help.
“If someone’s going to push you, they’re going to push you,” he said.
Fernando Carela, a 20-year-old restaurant busboy from The Bronx, said, “The situation would probably be different if they had someone watching the station.
“I don’t walk anywhere near the ledge,” he said.
Christine Nguessan, 22, a Minnesota State University student who often visits New York and rides the subways, called the killing “really scary.”
“I’m not afraid of the subway itself,” she said. “[But] you’re not safe with all the people around. I don’t stand close to the tracks. I stay clear.”
Upper West Sider Laura Alonso said that, on the subways, “you don’t know where the danger is.”
The 20-year-old clothing-store saleswoman said that, while she faces the danger every day, she can’t be paralyzed by it.
“You just can’t live with the fear, but you know it’s there,” she said. “It’s scary now. People aren’t well.
“I just don’t understand. I never thought about it. I’m not thinking, ‘What if someone pushes me?’ … And now this. I’ll take more precautions,” she said.