49 Go Above and Beyond: 'Transit' Honors Its Heroes

49 Go Above and Beyond

'Transit' Honors Its Heroes

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

New York City Transit President Lawrence Reuter put more than five months of acrimonious contract disputes aside June 22 to heap praise on 49 transit employees at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's fourth-annual Medals of Excellence ceremony.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang GOING THE EXTRA MILE: New York City Transit Bus Operator Courtney Granston (left), Train Operator Carlos Santiago and Train Operator Gilberto Maldonado accepted Heroism Medals of Excellence as the agency celebrated outstanding feats of bravery among its employees during the past year.

Reuter 'Humbled'

At the event's close, after shaking hands with employees who had, among other things, crawled under trains to rescue suicidal passengers, prevented a gas explosion in a room underneath the United Nations, taken on two thugs who were viciously attacking a fellow bus driver, and derailed numerous criminal acts on the city's buses and subways, Mr. Reuter said he was humbled by their bravery.

"This is really what the workers are about," he said. "Every once in a while, usually about every three years, there's a little contract issue to be dealt with, but these people do these kinds of things every day."

Among the more harrowing stories was that of Jose Vivas, a Collecting Agent in the Office of the Executive Vice President of NYC Transit who was one of four MTA workers to receive a Heroism Medal of Excellence, awarded to employees who perform specific acts of bravery on or off duty at great personal risk.

On Aug. 23, 2005 Mr. Vivas and several family members were on a plane headed to Pucallpa, Peru. As it began to descend, strong winds and rain sent it careening into the jungle for a crash landing. The plane broke apart and erupted in flames. Thirty-three passengers died.

But Mr. Vivas, aided by his brother, was able to get five survivors, including one badly burned across the face and hands, out of the wreckage and into a nearby clearing to await rescue by local authorities.

Handing out the medal, NYC Transit Office of Labor Relations Manager Joseph Loperfido applauded Mr. Vivas for his "bravery in the midst of dire consequences."

Averted a Suicide

Train Operator Gilberto Maldonado earned his Heroism Medal not in a remote jungle, but four stories below ground.

Operator Maldonado was piloting a 6 train into Union Square on April 8, 2005 when he noticed that a 5 train across the platform had only partially pulled into the station. At the same time he saw a woman running away from that side of the station and toward his incoming train.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang FOUGHT THE FIRE DOWN BELOW: Heavy smoke and a lack of firefighting equipment didn't prevent Mechanical Maintainers Anthony Giacopello (foreground), Colin Anthony (center) and Apprentice Javindra Basdewa from tackling a blaze spreading along a subway tunnel deep underneath the United Nations last year. The men were able to put out the flames despite having to jog up 18 flights of stairs for fire extinguishers. Instinctively, Mr. Maldonado sensed the woman had been planning to jump, but the Train Operator on the 5 had seen her and stopped short. He correctly guessed she was about to try again, and pulled his emergency brake just as she flung herself from the platform onto the rail bed in his path. His train came to a halt without touching her.

As he exited the cab, Train Operator Maldonado was horrified to see that she was reaching for the third rail in an attempt to electrocute herself. He lowered himself to the tracks and restrained the suicidal woman until authorities arrived.

Talked Her Back

Train Operator Carlos Santiago won his award with a similar rescue. He was driving a 5 train Oct. 11, 2005 when a woman at the Morris Park Station in The Bronx jumped to the roadbed in front of him. He threw the train into emergency mode, but knew that striking her was inevitable.

Mr. Santiago exited from the back of the cab and began to look under each car for the victim. As he got to the third car he found her - unharmed.

She had survived by lying flat in the track bed as the train passed over her, but now faced an equally grisly death by electrocution as she tried to crawl out along a live rail.

Train Operator Santiago firmly ordered the woman to stay where she was while he got on his stomach and inched underneath the car to her side, talking to her the whole time. He was able to keep her calm until power was cut to the area, and after a successful extraction, he stayed with her on the platform until she was taken to a nearby hospital.

The danger Bus Operator Courtney Granston faced Jan. 3, 2006 came from a potentially homicidal passenger. While driving his regular route along Kissena Blvd. in Queens, Mr. Granston noticed an elderly woman on the street waving at two police cars.

Sensed A Robbery

A few stops later, he picked up a male passenger who was behaving in a jittery and suspicious fashion.

As the passenger sat down and began fiddling with what looked to be a purse or wallet, Bus Operator Granston decided to call the police. Reasoning that using the transit telephone system in the bus would tip off the passenger, he pretended to be making a personal call on his cell.

As he unobtrusively phoned in the male passenger's description, Bus Operator Granston pulled into every bus stop along the route, even when there were no customers waiting, to give police an opportunity to catch up to him.

As he approached the 164th St. stop, he saw 10 police cars blocking the road. An Emergency Services Unit van pulled up as Bus Operator Granston guided his vehicle to the side. The passenger tried to escape, but was collared by officers before getting out the door.

Career Mugger

Bus Operator Granston later learned the man was a wanted criminal with 15 violent muggings on his record. He had been carrying a 24-inch knife and a concealed weapon with him.

When complimented on his extreme alertness, Bus Operator Granston commented wryly, "I guess you could call it that, but I'd call it a desire for self-preservation."

Also honored at the ceremony were Thomas Jones, a Surface Line Dispatcher, and Barry Gohari, an Electronics Specialist. Both men received the Distinguished Service Medal of Excellence, given to employees who demonstrate outstanding efficiency and a willingness to go beyond their usual job duties in times of crisis.

Cited for Excellence

Forty-three MTA employees were given a Commendation Medal of Excellence award for job-related acts involving personal risk or requiring exceptionally good judgment. Darrien Robinson, Traffic Checker; Steven Taylor, Collecting Agent; John Tagliarino, Maintainer; Paul Bimbiras, Track Worker; Albert Butler, Track Worker; Douglas Kmiotek, Track Worker; Ghanshaam Nath, Track Worker; Vincent Wooten, Property Protection Agent; Willie McDuffie, Train Service Supervisor; Serene Ravenell, Conductor; David Williams, Train Operator; Thomas Haynes, Cleaner; Louis Vega, Cleaner; and Frank Williams, Conductor, all received medals for feats of bravery that involved helping or saving transit customers.

The second group was given Commendations for quick-thinking responses to accidents or incidents that involved co-workers.

The recipients were Mark Arrington, Bus Operator; Francisco Lopez, Bus Operator; Edward Figueroa, Bus Operator; Deni Robles, Bus Operator; Robert Thiel, Bus Operator; Alfred Apel, Bus Operator; America Bello, Cleaner; Carmen Cuevas, Cleaner; Michael Cresci, Superintendent; and Stephen Ross, Conductor.

Kept Things Cool At UN

Three members of the Maintenance of Way Infrastructure Division were among the next group of honorees, who were lauded for responding to fire-related incidents.

Mechanical Maintainers Colin Anthony and Anthony Giacopello, along with Mechanical Maintainer Apprentice Javindra Basdewa, did their part to keep New Yorker's terrorism-jangled nerves steady last year when they averted a major fire in a rail bed underneath the United Nations.

The trio had arrived in one of the underground transit rooms to make some hydraulic repairs, but their attention was diverted by the smell of smoke from the subway tunnel 18 flights below.

They trekked down and discovered flames rapidly fanning across the tunnel ceiling. An electrical fire had sparked among the cables, creating noxious fumes as the plastic casings burned.

"The smoke got pretty heavy and we were all coughing a lot," said Mr. Anthony. "It wasn't an easy job."

Worked Unprotected

The group couldn't find any fire extinguishers on the walls around the track bed and had to climb back up the stairs to get some. Without any protective clothing or breathing masks, they descended again, and then clambered onto the narrow catwalks along the tunnel sides to battle the flames.

When the extinguishers ran out, Mr. Basdewa ran up the 18 flights a second time to grab some more. "It's always the young ones who have to do the legwork," he teased his colleagues. "But I didn't mind - we were getting nervous that it wouldn't go out."

It took a determined effort to extinguish the flames, but walking away and waiting for the Fire Department to respond wasn't an option, said Mr. Giacopello.

"There was an oil tank holding over 100 gallons of fuel right below the room that we had been standing in. We didn't want to risk not putting the fire out quickly," he said.

Others Honored

Joining them in receiving the fire-related Commendations were Raymond Dyer, Signal Maintainer; Gary Gilzeane, Signal Maintainer; Elson Griffin, Signal Maintainer; Salcedo Reyes, Signal Maintainer; Miguel Rivera, Signal Maintainer; Ramon Silfa, Signal Maintainer; and Rong Ye, Signal Maintainer.

Another group of MTA employees was awarded for rapid responses to equipment failure or seemingly innocuous incidents that could have lead to serious problems if left untended.

The recipients were Stephen Ross, Conductor; Vincent Chamberlain, Signal Maintainer; and Paul Stoker, Signal Maintainer.

The final group of Commendation Medal winners were those who prevented break-ins at key MTA properties.

Helped Nab Copper Thief

Among them was Superintendent Joseph Campos, who designed a surveillance system to monitor an MTA property in Brooklyn that was routinely robbed of its copper wirings and other electronic devices, including the closed-circuit TV monitors that allow Conductors to see down the entire length of subway trains. Mr. Campos's surveillance caught images of the burglar, but the perpetrator remained elusive. His picture was circulated among other workers at the site, however, and it wasn't long before Keiren Eschert, a Maintenance Supervisor, spotted him.

"I was driving along the side of the yard when I see this guy pushing a baby carriage. And I said to myself, 'What's this guy doing out at 10:30 at night with a baby carriage?''' Mr. Eschert recounted. "And he looked familiar - I was thinking, 'I've seen him somewhere before.'''

He called the police and was asked to monitor the trespasser until they got there. Mr. Eschert decided against approaching the man himself, and was grateful for his foresight when police discovered the suspect had a lethal-looking knife.

'Casing the Joint'

"It was a real problem for the yard because this guy had been stealing copper from the wires that's going into the cabling for One-Person-Train-Operation," said Mr. Eschert. "Copper's expensive, and he'd been taking it before, so he was just out casing the joint the night I saw him."

Other recipients of the Commendation Medal of Excellence award for averting property damage to the MTA were Nazim Ahmed, Maintenance Supervisor; Robert Elliot, Maintenance Supervisor; Vladimir Katkosvky, Maintenance Supervisor; and Erick Bobe, Transit Management Analyst.