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Subway drags woman to her death: $10 million lawsuit

A Manhattan straphanger was dragged to a gruesome death because an inattentive conductor didn’t notice that her foot had become trapped between the train and platform, a $10 million lawsuit charges.

Instead, the conductor notified the motorman that he was clear to leave the station — and the train dragged 38-year-old saleswoman Anita Gebode along the platform, slamming her body against the station’s cast-iron columns as riders watched in horror, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court papers.

Gebode’s body left a 300-foot trail of blood before she was flung onto the tracks.

The train then continued two more stops before finally being halted.

“She was our baby,” Gebode’s grieving sister, Ena Simmons, told The Post.

The nightmare unfolded after Gebode tripped as she got off the uptown No. 3 train around 10 p.m. Friday, July 27, 2012, at the 135th Street station, says the lawsuit targeting the MTA.

Her foot lodged between the train and the platform, but “basically, [the conductor] didn’t see her,” the motorman said in a deposition. “He would have definitely pulled the cord. He didn’t see it.”

The conductor claimed in his testimony that he looked both ways several times but did not spot her.

But Joshua Gropper, the lawyer for Gebode’s family, charged, “The train conductor, who was in the middle of the subway, is supposed to look forward and backwards, not only when the subway doors close but also as the train leaves the station.”

“Here, he had a clear and unobstructed view down the platform, and definitely should have seen Ms. Gebode.”

An off-duty rail-car inspector was in the train’s rear car when he saw the woman fall and then the faces of the shocked crowd on the platform, according to a deposition last week.

But he never hit the emergency brake.

Instead, he began walking to the conductor’s car in the middle of the 10-car train to alert him.

He didn’t reach the conductor until the train was at the Harlem terminal.

The family is seeking the public’s help in finding out exactly what happened. Anyone who witnessed the tragedy should call 212.366.4600.

“A horrific accident like this, we still can’t get over it,’’ Simmons said.

The MTA declined comment.