Guys, this is important: if you drop something into the subway tracks please, please, please don't jump down in there to grab it. That's how awful, gory things happen. Plus, there are other, far less dangerous, ways to get your things back. Really!
We bring this up because just this morning (a little after 2 a.m.) a rider at Second Avenue was struck by an F train after dropping their cellphone into the tracks—luckily they were barely hit and, thanks to the help of two friends, was able to leave the station in one piece. But still.
According to an MTA spokesman riders should "NEVER, ever, ever enter the tracks." Instead, straphangers are recommended to "contact the station agent on duty and arrangements can be made to retrieve the item." What kind of arrangements? Look up! Those kinds of arrangements. Better than being another grisly statistic.
Anyway, as you can see, MTA workers sent to retrieve things from the tracks get to use a super-extender claw not too disimilar to the ones you might have played with as a kid. In the above case, the guy at work was apparently retrieving a coffee cup at the Seventh Avenue station in Park Slope. All of which is to say: The MTA cares about you and your coffee (or cellphone), folks. No need to risk ruining everyone's commute with a daring, and possibly deadly, track jump.
