Subway operator runs from police after fatal Brooklyn collision

A subway motorman ran from police during an investigation after a man was fatally struck by a train in Brooklyn.

Around 10 a.m. on Monday at the 77thStreet-Fourth Avenue station in Bay Ridge, MTA officials said that a man committed suicide by jumping in front of a northbound R train, the New York Post reported.

While detectives were interviewing the train’s operator, Michael Catalano, 45, he suddenly ran from the scene and onto the street, sources said to the Post.

Authorities then caught Catalano, who has worked for the city’s transit system since 1993, near the corner of Fourth Avenue and 76thStreet, where he was detained for obstructing government administration, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz told DNAinfo.

Catalano’s blood tested negative for alcohol at Lutheran Medical Center, where he was taken after police located him, the Post added.

“It seems like he suffered a panic attack. He is being treated for his condition, and he will be released when he is OK,”a police source said to the Post.

Catalano was released without charges, Transit Workers Union Local 100 spokesman Pete Donohue told DNAinfo.

“You can’t exaggerate the horror and emotional trauma that an operator experiences when someone jumps in front of his or her train to commit suicide,” Donohue was quoted by DNAinfo. “They often require years of therapy and counseling.”