Regarding the reader who had to order a person down into the subway tracks, I have found that the vast majority of people do absolutely nothing in situations like these and it is only a very few that will react to save or help someone. My story:

My partner and I were frolicking in the waves at Santa Cruz beach just off the Boardwalk. We are both good swimmers, but seriously out of shape. There is a river that empties out into the ocean at the beach, and there were some people in it, but we were the only people in the ocean itself.

All of a sudden there was a young boy's head past us in the surf. While my brain was trying to figure out the logistics of how exactly he got there, it also registered the look of panic on his face.