Keron Thomas

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Keron Thomas was most known for posing as a New York City subway motorman named Regoberto Sabio in May of 1993, at the age of 16, and operating an A train in revenue service for approximately three hours. Thomas's actions went unnoticed by the passengers on board the R44 train, who were safely picked up and discharged at normal station stops along the route. However, Thomas operated the train too quickly rounding a curve, just a few stops from completing his route. This tripped the train's emergency brakes (or BIE - short for Brakes in Emergency - as transit officials refer to them), and Thomas was unable to reset them. The full scope of Thomas's actions was discovered after he was taken to NYCTA headquarters for drug and alcohol testing, which is standard TA policy after motormen are caught speeding. Despite his actions, Thomas came to be seen by some as a bit of a folk hero, and as a consequence was spared jail time. The New York Times reported, "Duty-bound to make it clear that people may not play subway motorman whenever they like but wary of punishing a folk hero -- and a mere boy, at that -- law-enforcement officials settled yesterday on three years' probation for the 16-year-old who took the controls of a subway train for three and a half hours in May."