After being run over by three subway cars and surviving to tell the tale, could Mary Downey have enough luck left over to win the lottery?
There’s an old Irish proverb that states, “God invented whiskey so the Irish wouldn’t rule the world.” Well, it also looks like God invented whiskey to help drunk Irish women survive getting run over by subway trains as well.
Early Sunday morning, 22-year-old Irish immigrant Mary Downey fulfilled nearly every archaic stereotype about the Irish as she drunkenly staggered into the 49th Street station near Seventh Avenue around 6 a.m. to catch a train back home.
While she was waiting (more likely trying to stand upright), Downey went ass over tea kettle onto the tracks below just as an oncoming train was barreling into the station. Although she was too drunk to lift herself up off the tracks, she somehow managed to keep her wits about her long enough to position herself so that the train rolled right over her.
But her ordeal wasn’t over…no. Poor Downey got run over not by just one or two trains…she was run over by three trains, each time rolling between the tracks where the train would just miss cutting her body to ribbons. It wasn’t until the third train passed over her that anyone even noticed that she might need a little help.
According to the New York Post, medics showed up and removed Downey from under the train, and for all her trouble, she managed to walk away with only minor injuries, including a broken shoulder. Not bad when you consider that chances for surviving being run over by a subway car are pretty slim.
On average, 134 people were hit by subway trains and 41 killed each year between 2001 and 2012, according to an MTA analysis appearing in the New York Daily News. About 35 percent of those hit are considered suicides or suicide attempts. Riders also fall victim to general stupidity such as climbing down on to the tracks to pick up shit they drop or even drunkenly walk into the sides of trains on platforms. Then there are the rare instances of riders being pushed on to tracks by maniacs, because what’s New York City without its fair share of maniacs?
In the end, Irish eyes were certainly smiling on Mary Downey, as she now has one hell of a story to tell while she continues the proud heritage of destroying vital organs through stereotypical alcoholism at her local Tavern.