Nearly seven years ago, a postal worker waiting for a train at the 110th Cathedral Parkway subway station in Manhattan was attacked by a crazed man holding two electric power saws. The attacker, Tareyton Williams, had grabbed the saws from a contractor's table and sliced through 64-year-old Michael Steinberg's chest, puncturing his lung and breaking a rib. While Steinberg has since forgiven Williams, he hasn't forgiven the contractors—and is suing them.
Steinberg, now 70, testified yesterday in his civil suit trial against MTA contractor Five Star Electric Corp. As the Post reports, he "holds [them] responsible for its negligence in not locking down the tools and for not coming to his aid during the butchery." The reciprocating saws had been left on the table, and Steinberg's lawyer said, "There was nobody and nothing to prevent anybody — crazy person, sane person, thief, nonthief — from walking over to those power tools and just lifting them off." But Five Star's lawyer said the attack was "an unexpected, unforeseeable action" and there wasn't reason to think anyone "would do something so over the top, so beyond the pale, so criminal."
Steinberg had tried to sue the MTA (transit workers didn't help him; a token booth clerk remained in the booth) but that suit was dropped because of governmental immunity. He forgave Williams, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison (Williams, incidentally, was caught hours after the attack—he had dumped the saws and then punched a man in the face).
After the attack, he retired from the postal service because he couldn't bear to take the subway and, now tells the Post that he takes two Valium pills before riding the rails, "I almost died."
