It was just like any other Thursday back in June of 2018 when Kyle Busquine did something that would have people hailing him as a hero.
But he’s not sure about that title – after all, he believes most people would do the same in his situation.
“It was the right thing to do, the human thing to do, to help someone else in need,” he said.
Busquine was waiting for a train at Toronto’s Broadview subway station when faint calls for help rang out.
A train snafu had let him off at a different stop and he was waiting for the next one to come along.
The 24-year-old landscaper then heard something unexpected – “help, help, help me.”
“It was very guttural and filled with fear,” Busquine recalled to the CBC.
A woman next to him, Julie Caniglia, heard the pleas too and posted a dramatic recollection of the event to Facebook.
“this afternoon I had the fright of my life. when my subway car pulled up at Broadview station I heard a faint voice call out “help, help me please”. it wasn’t coming from anyone in the car and after hearing it again I stood up and looked out on the platform,” she began.
That’s when they realized there was a man on the tracks.
Busquine was the first to see him and without a moment’s hesitation, he leaped into action.
“That’s all it took,” he said of putting his life on the line for a stranger.
He jumped down onto the tracks (a steep jump and one that’s hard to simply climb out of).
Two other men followed him once they saw what was going on.
Caniglia recounted the next few moments:
“suddenly and all very quickly myself and the man beside me saw a man with a walking cane lying on the tracks. he is blind and had fallen and injured himself. without hesitation the man you see in this picture in the animal shirt jumped into the tracks to pull him out. thankfully two other men showed up to help as well…”
Everyone was terrified that a train would come before the three men could save the blind man in need.
In a moment like that, everything seems to move in slow motion.
“It was probably all within less than a minute but it seemed like hours,” Caniglia told CBC News. “Knowing that the worst thing possible could happen and it was out of everyone’s control was really just the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen.”
She snapped a photo of the men after the rescue.
After reviewing the footage, the Toronto Transit Commission said that the blind man who fell had been waiting for a westbound train when he accidentally walked off the edge of the platform. Busquine had been waiting for an eastbound train, so that required him not only to jump down onto the tracks but cross to the other side.
He’s just grateful he didn’t have to do it alone and that two other men joined in the rescue.
“There’s no way I would’ve been able to do it by myself, especially without hurting the man any further,” Busquine told CBC News. “I do want to thank them. They did a great job for coming down and helping out.”
As for being at the Broadview station unexpectedly:
“Sometimes you just are where you need to be. I truly think that everything happened for a reason for sure and I’m just happy everything played out how it did,” Busquine said.
All three men were honored by the city.
After his rescue, the blind man was taken to the hospital for minor injuries but was OK. But he was lucky.
“If they hadn’t reacted so quickly, the outcome would have been horrific,” Caniglia said.
Be sure to scroll down below for an interview about the daring rescue with Busquine himself.
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