Man jumps on tracks to get cell phone, killed by train

Eyewitnesses say that a 22-year-old man jumped down onto the subway tracks in the Bronx after dropping his cell phone. A train strikes him.

The No.2 train.

(Credit: BryanMercy1022/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

It's never worth it.

And yet this isn't the first time someone jumped down onto rail tracks in order to retrieve a cell phone.

As New York's 1010 Wins reports, a 22-year-old man is said to have dropped his cell phone on the tracks at White Plains Road and East 241st Street, in the Wakefield section of the Bronx.

Eyewitnesses said that it seemed like a crazy thing to do. One even speculated whether he was trying to commit suicide.

What is clear is that he was struck by the No. 2 train and killed. His identity has not been released.

A local coffee shop worker called Debbie told 1010 Wins: "There's signs everywhere stating to tell a train crew or a police officer to get your cell phone, or anything that falls on the tracks, so they should definitely think before they go and risk their life for a cell phone."

Thinking is something that seems the last thing on some people's minds when they let go of their cell phones in this way.

This incident is a painful reminder of a recent case in Brazil, when a woman leaped onto tracks seemingly to get back her cell phone and was saved only because she had help from a security guard.

It really is never worth it. It really is just a cell phone.