UNIVERSITY PARK, Ill. — Two men are thankful their injuries weren’t catastrophic after a stairway at a suburban Metra station collapsed last week.

Like a usual Wednesday afternoon, David Knuth was commuting from his job downtown to get home via a Metra train. He disembarked at the University Park station and began his journey to the parking lot.

What happened next is something Knuth can’t get out of his mind as he deals with lacerations, deep bruising and mental scars.

The stairway collapsed with Knuth and four others on it — leaving him on top of the rubble.

“It gave out, it collapsed and I was right smack in the middle,” Knuth said. “I fell on top of debris and six or eight stairs seemed to rot out.”

Despite the injuries, Knuth refused to be transported by authorities because he “just wanted to get out of there.”

“When I landed, I scooted off the pile and couldn’t believe what just happened,” Knuth said. “A bunch of people rushed up on me and I heard sirens pretty quickly.”

Paul Johnson was a “half step” ahead of Knuth on the stairwell.

He knew something was wrong right away.

“When I took a step it felt like this real spongy bounce,” Johnson said. “At that moment, I knew something was really off — I took another step and that’s when things started coming down.”

Johnson landed hard on the last stair, that was in tact, and injured his knee. Since the incident, he said it’s swelled and is “not right.” Johnson is awaiting results of an MRI.

He rushed to Knuth after the collapse.

“People are screaming, people are pulling out cell phones, first thought is ‘oh my God this guy,'” Johnson recalled. “I got up and I think David was bleeding from his legs and his side, we got a bunch of napkins and tried to wipe up the blood.”

Johnson and Knuth said the other stairwell at the station has been closed since late 2019 or early 2020.

Metra told WGN News that stations receive a full facility conditions assessments every four years and in the “intervening months our maintenance personnel identify and address issues that arise.”

Metra said they do not have a replacement timeline yet for the stairs that collapsed.

After dealing with a variety of injuries, Knuth knows the situation could have been more dire.

“There could have been 15 people on it,” Knuth said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

A request for comment from the mayor of University Park and the village manager were not answered.