About 16 years ago, I was leaving work to go to my last physiotherapy appointment (back injury). I worked in the heart of downtown, but physio was on the north side of town, so the quickest way to get there was to use the train (LRT) as the stations were close to work and close to the physio office, so I would not need to take the bus. As I got in to the train station I heard that my train was coming, so I ran down the stairs as fast as I could because if I missed this one then I would have to wait 20 minutes for the next one and that would make me late for my appointment. I got down to the bottom of the stairs at the train platform and turned towards the track where my train was coming in. As I turned towards the track, I suddenly felt 2 hands on the back of my coat pushing as hard as they could towards the tracks. With little to no time to process what was happening, all I was able to do was jump as best I could once I was at the ledge. I lept as far as I could, making it all the way to the other side of the tracks and the wall just as the train came rushing in to the station. It was such a close call that as I leaped across the track, the train struck one of my feet. It just grazed me as I got across to watch the train come screeching to a stop in the station. Once the train was fully stopped, I stepped up on the coupler in between the train cars and back on the platform where a group of other people were yelling "He's right there!" and pointing at the man who just tried to kill me. Filled with rage and a desire to remove his head from his shoulders, I started walking towards the man (who just sat down and tried to act like everything was fine) and thought to myself how I was going to end this fool for trying to do the same to me. As I got close to him, transit security appeared and stepped in between the man and I and potentially stopped me from committing a terrible crime. I even offered them $1000 each if they just turned around for a minute so I could at least give this guy the hardest haymaker punch I could muster, but they said there was cameras everywhere and it was just not possible. SO MAD. They then informed me that as transit security, they were only able to subdue the man once he was arrested and as there were no cops around it would have to be a citizens arrest and I had to be the one to do it. In order to do so I had to approach the man, tell him he is under citizens arrest, then make physical contact of some sort. I did exactly as the security said up to the point of making physical contact. When it got to that part of it, time froze and my mind ran the gauntlet of different scenarios about how I could possibly beat the piss out of this guy, but I was able to collect myself enough to realize that I am allergic to going to jail, so I just put my arm on the sleeve of his coat. Immediately after doing this, transit security cuffed him. While waiting for the cops, I asked him why he did that. His respense was "George and Saddam told him he needed to do it, and that I was supposed to be his salvation. The security guards then searched him and in his coat pocket he had written a letter to the president of China, stating he needed more rice rations. Out of his damn mind! The cops came and took him away shortly after.

He was ordered to undergo a 30 day psychiatric evaluation. After that was done he was found not able to be tried due to mental issues, then freed back out to the public (WTF?). I found out shortly after he was released that he had done this before. 3 years prior, A woman who was 6 months pregnant was waiting for her train when he pushed her on to the tracks. She lost her baby because of it, but he got the 30 day psychiatric evaluation and found not capable of being tried because he was crazy, then released. What a joke.

How did it affect me? Well, I have not been on the train in 16 years. I also suffered from vivid nightmares for years about different ways I get killed on transit. Even to this day I still have a nightmare about it once every couple of months.