CENTERVILLE, UTAH -- Newly released video shows a Utah Highway Patrol trooper pull an unconcious driver from a vehicle stuck on train tracks before it was struck early Wednesday morning.
Trooper Ruben Correa approached the car on the FrontRunner tracks with a train bearing down around 6:50 a.m. and knew he had just seconds to get the driver out, accoridng to KSL-TV.
"At that point, I actually wasn’t really thinking," Correa told the news station. "I was just doing my job,"
Correa was able to get the driver out just seconds before a northbound train slammed into the vehicle, throwing it at least 30 feet ahead on the tracks.
No injuries were reported in the incident.
Correa said he used his spotlight to locate the car and told dispatchers when he found it on the southbound side of the freeway. He then got out of his patrol vehicle, ran over to the car on the tracks and opened the door. That's when he discovered the unconscious driver still inside.
That's when he heard the train's horn as it quickly approached the car. He dragged the still unresponsive driver out of the car and onto the embankment next to the tracks.
"That's when I realized, 'Oh wow, that was a lot closer than what I would have liked,' " he said.
The driver, who had an unknown medical issue prior to the crash, is safe and with his family.
"I'm still trying to process everything that happened," Correa told KSL-TV. "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."
