Train Takes Off with Woman's Arm Caught in Door

A woman’s arm got caught in a SEPTA train door Thursday morning at the Wayne Train Station as she attempted to catch an in-bound train on the Paoli/Thorndale Line regional rail line. 

According to a witness, around 9:10 a.m. a woman ran briskly through the parking lot and up the stairwell with a purse and a roll-on piece of luggage, toward the platform while yelling aloud to the train, “I’m coming! I’m here!” in an attempt to not miss the train.  

“I watched her get within inches of the open doors, and heard her say, ‘Oh thank you!’ but immediately the doors closed on her right arm (possibly wrist). I watched her unsuccessfully try to wiggle her arm free, and heard her begin to scream loudly and repeatedly, ‘Wait, my arm is stuck, my arm is stuck!’,” the witness wrote in a statement to Radnor Police.

After about 3 seconds the train began to move forward, and the witness said she saw the woman break into a “jog” alongside the train with her arm still pinned between the doors. “At this point, I put my eyes forward and ran as fast as I could, while still holding my baby, toward the woman.  I, too, was screaming loudly to her and to the train, ‘Wait! I’m coming! Stop!’ Within 15 seconds I was beside her. She was laying facedown on the platform, arm freed from the train, and the train was stopped,” the witness stated. 

The witness said she called for the train conductor multiple times to call 911.

A passenger who identified herself as a first responder de-boarded the train and ran over to help.  “Together, we identified ourselves to the woman, accessed her overall condition (awake, no bleeding, breathing ok), and began treating her for shock by stabilizing her neck and putting my jacket on her for warmth.  I also ask the second conductor that joined us for his sweater to help keep the victim warm,” the witness stated.

She said the conductor “was saying rude things aloud about how ‘that’s not how you board a train’ and so on. I asked him to not talk about that in front of the patient, and to be quiet,” she said.

Minutes later first responders arrived on the scene.