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Chivalry is not dead — but it nearly got obliterated by a subway train in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
A Manhattan-bound L train entered the E. 105th St. station in Canarsie moments after a gallant but heedless man jumped from the platform at about 10:25 a.m. to retrieve a woman’s cellphone, authorities and a source said.
It was unclear if the train stopped in the nick of time or if the trespassing man survived by squeezing into the trough between the rails. But he somehow avoided being struck — and then ran from the station before police and firefighters arrived.
“He’s extremely lucky,” one transit source said.
According to the source, the motorman was driving slower than usual because he knew track workers were doing a repair project just beyond the station. The train operator said he was being extra cautious in case some of the workers were within the station’s boundaries.
“He was able to stop the train before it came in contact with the person,” the source said.
It was so close, the source said, the motorman thought his 750,000-pound train had in fact hit someone. He expected to find a body underneath the cars but checked and did not.
An MTA spokesman said the train rolled over the man but didn’t strike him.
Witnesses told the train crew they saw a man run down the outdoor tracks, the source said. The man probably climbed the fence bordering the route through the area, the source said.
“He left the system,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
The woman who dropped her mobile didn’t know the man, the source said.
After the phone hit the tracks, he said, “‘Don’t worry. I’ll go get it for you,'” according to the source.
Approaching trains are quieter outside than those traveling through tunnels, the source said.
“The train snuck up on him,” the source said.
The man, apparently not wanting to get in trouble for trespassing, took off without stopping to give the woman her phone, the source said.
His heroic gesture, minus the follow-through, came despite many warnings by transit officials not to descend to the tracks for any reason.
“We can’t say it enough,” Ortiz said. “Never, ever go onto the tracks to retrieve anything. Contact an MTA employee who can assist. Your life is worth more than a cell phone.”
Last year alone, 53 people were fatally struck by subway trains.
Ortiz dramatizes the danger in an MTA public service announcement video on YouTube.
In the video, Ortiz drops to the tracks to pick up a $299 cell phone. But he can’t hoist himself up to the platform, which is more than 4 feet off the ground.
A train, meanwhile, races toward him in the video while bystanders shout desperate and futile warnings.
“Drop something? Leave it,” text during the video states. “Never go to the tracks for any reason. You may never get back up.”
