A heroic Hunter College student tried to save a woman who jumped onto the subway tracks to retrieve her handbag – then watched helplessly as the woman was killed by a train, officials said yesterday.
Student Madeline Peck told police, “she couldn’t get up, and I tried to get a guy on the platform to help me, but by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late.”
Witnesses said Jean Eng, 53, of 70 Bayard St., dropped her bag onto the Lexington Avenue tracks shortly after 10 a.m. from the northbound platform of the 23rd Street station.
As the No. 6 train hurtled into the station from Union Square, Eng jumped onto the tracks to grab the bag, then tried desperately to get back on the platform.
Law-enforcement sources said Peck, a North Carolina native who lives on Gramercy Park South, leaned over and tried to help Eng.
Police said the victim, described as short and weighing more than 200 pounds, was on medication and may have had mental problems or was unaware of the danger.
Witnesses said Eng avoided being hit by the first subway car and was killed by the second or third.
She was pronounced dead on the scene at 10:30 a.m. and her body was taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Eng was killed less than 24 hours after another No. 6 train killed a 59-year-old man at the Canal Street station.
Cops described that death as an apparent suicide.