Social media users on the site Reddit were on a voting frenzy Sunday when a link was posted to a December 2012 thespec.com article about a controversy over a New York Post photo taken of a man about to be hit by a train.

The story sparked a debate about whether the flash of a camera could stop a train.

Commenter gwsteve43 posted the following:



"It wouldn't make any difference one way or the other. Trains don't work like cars, it takes them a loooooooooong time to stop. The vast majority of the time it makes no difference if the conductor sees someone on the track, by the time it is possible for the person to be seen its too late to stop the train. The mans only chance was to be rescued by his fellow commuters." Original article follows:



There is growing outrage over the New York Post’s front page photograph of a man trying to climb to safety while a subway train bears down on him at on a Times Square subway platform. There is growing outrage over the New York Post’s front page photograph of a man trying to climb to safety while a subway train bears down on him at on a Times Square subway platform. Moments later, he was dead.



RELATED: Read the Post story

News organizations and readers took to Twitter and other sites to condemn the Post for the image, which was headlined “Pushed on the track, this man is about to die” and splashed with the bigger headline “DOOMED.”

Ian Prior, the Guardian’s London-based sports editor, tweeted: “Sickening rubber-necking front page from the New York Post. Imagine how this man’s family feels.”

According to the newspaper, Ki Suk Han, 58, “desperately tried to scramble back to the platform as onlookers screamed, shouted and frantically waved their hands and bags in a bid to get the downtown Q train to stop at around 12:30 p.m.”

However, questions over the photographer’s actions lit up Twitter as many asked why was he taking photos instead of trying to pull the man to safety.

The photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, had been waiting on the platform of the 49th Street station and ran toward the train, repeatedly firing off his flash to warn the operator, the newspaper reported.

“I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash,” said Abbasi, whose camera captured the chilling shots.

The wife of the victim says she and her husband had argued before the tragedy.

She tried to call him after their 11:30 a.m. fight, but he never picked up.

The tragedy happened at about 12:30 p.m. Monday and a video shows the victim having a heated exchange with the man.

Police department spokesman Paul Browne told the New York Times that the emotionally disturbed man pushed the victim onto the tracks.

“As he attempted to climb out of the well, he was struck by the train and got wedged between the platform and the train car,” Browne said.

The police spokesman told the Times that witnesses said the train screeched, apparently as the train operator hit the brakes. But it travelled about 15 metres before it finally stopped.

The victim, a father from Queens, was apparently trying to protect people from the deranged man on the platform when he was hurled onto the tracks.

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The Post showed a photo of the suspect, who had been menacing others in the station before getting into a dispute with Han.

The Atlantic Wire posed this question: “If there’s enough time to capture a dying man’s last moments before getting hit by an oncoming train that’s that worthy of a tabloid cover, couldn’t the photographer have lent a hand?”

The writer, Alexander Abad-Santos, concludes: “Getting a conductor’s attention with a flash — and maybe even blinding him with it — doesn’t seem like the way you’d necessarily help someone that’s clinging to the subway platform.”

Blogger Michelle Fields expressed similar outrage.

“I can’t help but ask why in the world was this photographer snapping photos while a man was about to die?” she wrote.

“Why didn’t he put down his camera and rush to grab this man who was trying desperately to get off the tracks? Snapping flashes with your camera shouldn’t be your first response. Rushing to grab the man and help him off the tracks should be.”

Readers also called the Post “tasteless” for even running the photo in the first place.

Other readers are not buying Abassi’s story that he thought the use of the flash would warn the subway driver.

The attacker was described by police as a black man in his mid-20s in a tan shirt and black pants who was carrying a black jacket and wearing a woollen hat.

Police later took a man into custody. The New York Times reported that detectives found the suspect after reviewing video surveillance footage from subway stations and other cameras posted in the area.

He was not immediately identified.

Torstar News Services/Star wire services