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Blind man falls off platform under oncoming Metro train but survives unscathed
File: A Metro Red Line train.
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Spokker Jones/flickr Creative Commons
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A blind man fell off a Los Angeles Metro train platform Thursday afternoon and a Red Line train was unable to stop in time before reaching the man, but he escaped unscathed.
At 3:22 p.m. at the Wilshire and Vermont Metro station, "A blind man with a cane was walking toward the edge of the platform" spokesman Paul Gonzales told KPCC. The arriving train operator saw him walking toward the platform and sounded his horn, Gonzales said, but the man reportedly kept walking until he fell off the platform and in the way of the arriving train.
RELATED: 27-year-old rescued after being trapped under Metro Red Line train
The train operator applied his brakes but the vehicle couldn't stop in time, Gonzales said. However, the blind man, a 47-year-old L.A. resident, lay flat next to the rails and the train passed over him. It stopped with the man beneath the second of six cars.
The L.A. Fire Department rescued the man from beneath the train and he had no visible injuries, Gonzales said.
Authorities have not yet released the identity of the victim. Paramedics transported him to L.A County+USC Medical Center for observation.
Service on the Red Line was briefly interrupted because of the incident, but is now back to normal.
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