A man who fell onto MARTA tracks and was struck by a train this past week continues to recover after losing part of a limb.
The man spent nearly 30 minutes pinned beneath a two-car train operating on MARTA’s green line before emergency rescue workers managed to extricate him Tuesday.
The incident unfolded just after 4:20 p.m. at the Vine City station near downtown Atlanta, according to an incident report from the Atlanta fire department. It disrupted service at the busy transit station at the height of the afternoon commute.
Firefighters received reports that the man, whose name has not been released, collapsed and fell onto the tracks moments before the train struck him and he was pinned beneath. Officials suspect he may have suffered some sort of medical emergency before he fell.
Authorities originally said Tuesday that the man lost his right leg during the ordeal. MARTA officials on Friday clarified that he lost his foot, not his entire leg.
“He is doing well and in good spirits,” said Stephany Fisher, a spokesperson for the transit agency.
MARTA police continue to investigate the incident to determine if foul play or wrongdoing factored into the accident. Investigators met with the man Thursday and remain in contact with his brother, who is his caregiver, Fisher said.
The fire department’s report shed light on the effort to disentangle and extricate the victim from beneath the train.
MARTA operations reported the incident to Atlanta firefighters at 4:23 p.m. and crews arrived eight minutes later. MARTA police officers and a team of medical workers from Grady Memorial Hospital were already on scene.
Shortly after 4:40 p.m., MARTA’s central control shut off to the third rail, which powers the train as well as the tracks, on the westbound line. Firefighters placed shunts on the tracks to short-circuit them, a safety precaution for the rescue workers. Minutes later, they did the same thing on the eastbound tracks.
That’s when a team of firefighters moved in for the extrication. According to the report, it took them four minutes to remove the man from the tracks. By the time they did, he’d lost consciousness.
By 5 p.m., paramedics were transporting the man to Grady. Authorities remained at the scene for another hour and a half, and MARTA’s blue and green lines experienced about two hours of service interruptions.
Fisher said it’s MARTA policy to shut off power for any incidents that involve people on the tracks. It is a necessary step taken before any rescue effort can occur.
“This is to ensure that no one else is injured during a rescue and it prevents other trains from traveling through the area while evidence is being collected,” Fisher said.
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