“He’d heard of people who’s been wedged between a subway train and its platform, able to listen and speak, and to whom recue crews and a hastily summoned priest could only explain that the moment they were freed, their demise- delayed- would now be arriving on Track 2, and did they have any message for their loved ones before they were released from both their pinion and existence?”
In: Other
I’m fairly sure it’s playing off the overhead announcement “the C train is now arriving at track 2” you might hear in a subway station
Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes
They are referring a situation where a person can be struck by a subway train and be trapped between the train and the platform. The result is as the train pulls in to the station the person gets twisted around and around their own hips like a doll. The result is the person remains alive and conscious and able to talk to their rescuers as if they were just trapped and needed to be freed. Unfortunately, the injury is clearly fatal and they will die almost instantly upon the train being removed and the person untwisting back into two broken halves.
So the narrator is being a bit cute with their wording, but they are basically describing this, how the person can ask for last rights from a priest, write down a message for loved ones and talk to their rescuers. The narrator also makes a joke on how the person’s death is delayed, like a train might be, and their “death is now arriving on track two”.
The final flourish is the person being released from both their pinion (a trapped position, like in wrestling) and their existence (one released they die)
EDIT: For what’s it’s worth I’m not positive if this kind of death is actually possible, or just an urban legend, or even something that entirely originated from this book. I’m familiar with the concept but can’t pretend I know it’s a factual thing.
There’s a bit of a metaphor here. In the predicament described, the person is still alive, but only because of the pressure pinning them between the train and the platform. Once their body is removed from that position, something bad will happen (probably massive blood loss), and they will die. This death cannot be prevented, but it can be delayed by keeping them where they are, and this permits time for things like last rites or goodbyes to loved ones.
The author then takes this idea of death being delayed but arriving eventually and imagines it as a subway train. At major subway stations, it’s common to hear announcements about what trains are arriving on what tracks (though this is honestly more of a thing at big train stations with scheduled departures). The author is applying this kind of language to the “arrival” of the unfortunate person’s death. There is no literal train coming on track 2 whose arrival would kill the them.
In a crush injury like they are describing, the pressure of the train against their body is preventing the blood from flowing out their damaged vessels. Once they are removed, their blood will flow quickly, leading to their death from blood loss and organ damage.
See the episode “Subway” from “Homicide: Life on the Street”. Vincent D’Onofrio plays the unlucky stuckee.
Among the many, *many* disturbing videos that used to populate r/watchpeopledie was a corker in which an elderly Indian man who had been *decisively* mutilated by a train was able to carry on a brief but relatively calm conversation with passersby before… passing.
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