Dan's Papers - January 11, 2008

The Christmas season is the time for miracles, and over this past Christmas, there were two of them, one in East Hampton and one in Bridgehampton.

The one in Bridgehampton happened during the hysteria of the final day of Christmas shopping at the Bridgehampton Commons. At 11 a.m., a 74-year-old Sag Harbor woman named Yoko Shiraishi was in the parking lot driving around and around trying to find a parking space, and apparently as she drove around a turn, did not see a man pushing a shopping cart filled with presents and his two small children.

Before she knew it, the car hit both him and the shopping cart, and was on top of them. Steven Maeglin was pushed out of the way, but the shopping cart fell over and the contents of it were soon under the car. Pinned under there was Amanda Maeglin, age 6 and crying, but apparently unhurt was her little brother, Quinn, age 4, who was just frightened. Bystanders quickly gathered. Some people pulled Quinn out from under the car, but Amanda was clearly pinned by one of the front wheels. It was a horrifying situation. Cell phones came out. Within a minute, 911 had received five calls.

Most people standing around didn't know what to do. A huge crowd soon formed in front of King Kullen. The car was a four door Toyota Corolla, which weighs more than two tons. Nevertheless, two young men stepped forward and went to the front end of this car, and sweated and strained and lifted it the few inches necessary for other bystanders, including Mr. Maeglin, to be able to slide Amanda out.

The police and ambulances arrived. It was found that Amanda, who was initially feared to have been seriously injured, only suffered a broken hip. The heroes of this day were Claude Sulffel and Andrew McMillen, who gave their names to the police, but not their addresses, and soon after left the mall parking lot. Perhaps someone who knows them could properly identify them so we could thank these heroes for their superhuman effort in our letters column. Write askdan@danspapers.com.

The second miracle of the Christmas season occurred in the early evening on New Year's Day at the East Hampton train station, where two older men ran onto the tracks to snatch a young man who was just about to be hit by an incoming westbound train, and then dove with him to safety.

It is not clear whether this young man was on the tracks to show off, or as an attempted suicide or just to make a demonstration of his sadness at having to say goodbye to his girlfriend at the end of the long holiday weekend by delaying the train.

Here is what happened.

By 5:55 p.m., around 50 people were standing on the platform waiting for the arrival of the train to Manhattan, which was scheduled to come into the station at 6:01 p.m. The train whistle was heard, which meant it was making its way toward the station from Amagansett and would arrive shortly.

On the platform amongst the crowd was Robert Kushner of East Hampton, who had driven a friend of his, David Khinda, 40, of Los Angeles, to the station for his return to Manhattan. Also in the crowd on the platform, unknown to Mr. Khinda or Mr. Kushner, was a young couple, about 15 or 16 years old, who had been driven there by the teenage girl's mother. In the events that followed, no one ever learned the names of these three people. Also on the platform was an unknown gentleman of about 50, with his son who appeared to be about 7.

As the train approached the station, the clanging was heard from the Newtown Lane railroad gate as it lowered into position. And at that point, people on the platform, who were all looking at the train, began to shout. At that moment the locomotive engine began to sound wildly. This came to the attention of Mr. Khinda. He now saw on the tracks in front of the train this 16-year-old boy, who it appeared, would surely be killed as the train pulled in. Sparks were flying from the train wheels as the engineer applied the brakes, but it seemed quite clear this huge train would not stop in time. The young boy seemed to be struggling with one of his sneakers. It seemed to be caught on a rail.

As others turned away from what was about to happen, Khinda leaped into action. Running down the platform, he found himself alongside an older man, who had joined him. Together, they leaped onto the tracks into harm's way, grabbed the young man and pulled him out of where he was stuck and off into the rail bed cinders on the side. Just seconds later, the train swept in over where they had been standing.

The boy, now saved, struggled to his feet, and ran off. His girlfriend boarded the train. And the mother of his girlfriend began running after him, shouting for him to come back, and calling to him saying what a stupid thing he just had done.

The engineer and motorman wrestled the train to a halt short of where they were supposed to, then leaped out of the cab, clearly under the impression they had hit at least one and possibly three people, and to go look at that spot.

Although nobody caught the young man, several people on the platform did briefly detain the woman who was running after him. They tried to ask her things, but she said to please leave her alone, and she was left to run off.

Meanwhile, on the train, which was now pulling out of the East Hampton station after being delayed a few minutes by this, railroad employees tried to question the young girl, who was heading towards a seat. What was her name? Who was her boyfriend? Why had he done this? Was he crazy?

She replied that she did not want to give his name because she did not want to get him in trouble. She said he was not crazy. Stupid maybe, but not crazy. She said she did not want to give her name. One of the railroad employees said he clearly needs help and she seemed to agree with that. At that point, another passenger, a lawyer, got up and came over and asked the girl if she wanted to talk to these people, and when she said she didn't the lawyer told the railroad people to leave her alone, and they did. Later, at another station, a friend of this girl got on the train to join her. The two got off at Babylon.

Meanwhile, back on the platform, Mr. Khinda accompanied the older man back to his 8-year-old son after this incident, and told the boy, who seemed scared about what had just happened, that his father was a hero.

He also said, and the older man concurred, that the young man seemed to be struggling to free his foot when they got there. It sure didn't look like a suicide attempt.

Everything had happened so fast that, as it turned out, nobody ever stopped to call the police. The police only learned about this incident much later.

Chief Larson of the East Hampton Village Police Department said when he learned about it they might have been of some help if they had been called in. It appeared that the boy needed help.