Deaf, retarded man killed on subway tracks

From: Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA - May 24, 2004

NEW YORK (AP) _ A deaf and mentally retarded man was killed when he crouched beside some subway train tracks in Manhattan and was hit by an oncoming train, police said.

The man, who was 39, lived at a group home on West 24th Street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. He wandered away from the home sometime Sunday and climbed down onto the tracks at the 23rd Street station of the Seventh Avenue line at about 6:10 p.m., police said.

The train's conductor saw the man but could not stop the train in time, said Sgt. Michael Wysokowski, a police spokesman. An aide at the group home told police the man was a subway buff and sometimes walked to the 23rd Street station, Wysokowski said.

The group home is run by the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Deborah Sturm-Rausch, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the incident would be "fully investigated."

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press