A heroic Utah Trooper ignored a train bearing down on him to pull an unconscious driver from a car on the tracks early Wednesday — getting him free just one second before it would have killed them both.
Dramatic dashcam footage shows Highway Patrol Trooper Ruben Correa running up a small slope to a car on the tracks as the lights of the FrontRunner train can already be seen heading toward them.
“Get out of here — we got a train coming! We got a train coming!” he can be heard shouting in panic as he tries to move the unidentified driver.
Correa finally lifted him out, with them tumbling down the slope just a second before the train smashed through the stationary car, throwing it at least 30 feet ahead on the tracks near Farmington.
“That’s when I realized, ‘Oh wow, that was a lot closer than what I would have liked,'” Correa told KSL.
The unconscious driver was saved by a matter of seconds.Utah Highway PatrolNeither the officer nor the driver — said to have had an unknown medical issue prior to the crash — were hurt, according to KSL.
“I’m still trying to process everything that happened,” the trooper told the site. “I’m just very grateful that I was able to get him out and he’s alive and he’s back with his family now.”
The officer insisted he was “just doing my job” — while his Colonel, Michael Rapich, took to Twitter to praise his “incredible and heroic action.”
Patrol Trooper Ruben Correa ran up a small hill to save the driver.Utah Highway Patrol“We are so grateful that the Driver and Trooper are safe after this extremely close call. Well done Trooper Correa!!!” he wrote.
