Utah state trooper rescues man from tracks just seconds before train collision
An officer with the Utah Highway Patrol said he was still trying to "process" the terrifying moment when he pulled a man out of the path of an oncoming train.
The rescue of the dramatic save was caught on Utah State Trooper Ruben Correa's dashboard camera.
The video, taken Wednesday around 6:50 a.m. in Centerville, Utah, showed Correa stopping his patrol vehicle and racing up a short embankment toward a car that was parked on the train tracks with its lights on.
Correa risked his life to pull the man out as a train barreled toward them.
Correa had been making a traffic stop when a call came in about a car stuck on the tracks, he told Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX on Wednesday after the incident.
"I looked to my left, and I was able to observe that train was coming fast. Anywhere from 50 to 80 miles an hour," Correa told KTVX.
In the dashboard video, lights from the front of a train can be seen growing brighter as it gets closer.
The video shows Correa reaching the car and tugging on a person in the vehicle. Correa said later during the news interview that the driver was unconscious.
"Let's go! Get out of here! We've got a train coming! We've got a train coming!" he can be heard yelling desperately as the train sounds its horn. "We've got a train coming!"
With just seconds before the train struck the vehicle, dragging it along the tracks, Correa could be seen pulling the man's body from the car. The two tumbled down the embankment and rolled into a fence. The train could be seen stopping.
"Come on! Come on!" Correa tells the man, who has started to move and walk, as the two try to get away from the train.
"I got the driver out," he can be heard saying on his radio.
Correa estimated that the car had been thrown about 30 feet in front of him and the driver.
"I was within seconds of that collision. Maybe just a second later it would have been a different outcome," he said.
KTVX-TV said there were no known injuries to the driver or to those on the train. Correa said it appeared that the driver of the vehicle, who has not been identified, had been suffering an "unknown medical condition."
He said the driver was grateful for being rescued and a little confused about the incident. As for Correa, he said he was just doing his job.
"I'm still trying to process everything that happened," Correa said. "I’m just very grateful I was able to get him out alive. He's back with his family now."
