Victor M. Ortiz saved a man from being struck by a train, Secaucus, New Jersey, August 26, 2016.
The man went to a point between the rails of a track at a commuter train station as an express train traveling at 60 m.p.h. approached the station on that track.
A transit police officer who had responded to the station, Ortiz, 41, of Union, N.J., advanced to the man, who lay face down on the track and grasped its rails. Ortiz handcuffed one of the man’s hands and pulled it from the rail, but the man, who greatly outweighed Ortiz, resisted Ortiz’s attempts to remove him from the track.
Seeing the train approach, Ortiz stepped between the rails of the track, but the man continued to struggle against him. Ortiz tugged hard on the man as the train, then in emergency braking, bore down on them. He dragged the man from the track just seconds before the front of the train passed them.
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