A man nearly lost his life Friday afternoon after slipping on a banana peel on a Manhattan subway platform just as a train was about to arrive, authorities said.
Manuel Cadiz, 37, of Staten Island, was waiting for an uptown no. 4 train at Bowling Green around 2:25 p.m. when he stepped to the edge of the platform to check for his train.
“I’m a very careful guy, I just didn’t see this banana peel as I went to see if my train was coming,” Cadiz said of harrowing incident, which left him on the tracks of an incoming train with an injured leg. “Thank God the conductor hit the breaks in time, just close enough. I’m blessed.”
Cadiz was taken to New York Hospital – Downtown for a banged-up ankle and bruises on his right leg. According to Cadiz, no bones were broken.
Other passengers waiting on the platform came to Cadiz’s aid and pulled the man from the tracks as the conductor slowed the train to a complete stop.
“People cared,” Cadiz said of his rescuers. “Everyone came together to help me.”