Joseph Lynskey, 45, was standing on the platform in the West 18th Street station in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon when another man pushed him onto the tracks as a 1 train approached. Police called it a random attack.
Lynskey's condition has been upgraded from critical to stable, police said.
Christopher Lynskey, told The Daily News that his brother's injuries include a skull fracture and broken ribs, but he is awake and talking at Bellevue Hospital.
"He's good," said Christopher Lynskey, who flew in from Florida to see his brother. “He's busted up a little bit, but he's going to make a full recovery.”
A police department statement said responding officers were told Lynskey was struck by the train. Authorities did not say how Lynskey escaped with just broken bones.
While a direct hit with a train is often fatal, some who fall from New York City’s platforms do manage to survive. Safety experts say if it’s not possible to get back on a platform or outrun a slowing train, lying down in the trough between the tracks may work in some stations, and there might be a space between the train and the platform at some stops.
Kamel Hawkins, 23, was taken into custody later that day and made his initial court appearance in Manhattan Wednesday, when a judge approved a request by prosecutors to detain the Brooklyn resident without bail pending his next court appearance on Monday.
Hawkins already had pending assault and harassment charges in Brooklyn, where he is accused of throwing bleach on a woman and trying to break into her home after threatening her, according to prosecutors.
