Charles William Lightfoot, 17, saved Hugh L. Thompson, 8, from being killed by a train, Tallega, Kentucky, October 18, 1955. While their teacher was taking Hugh and five other children, ages 6-9, to school by crossing a single track railroad bridge 450 feet long and 60 feet high, an unscheduled freight train approached at a speed of 40 m.p.h. Charles, who was the teacher’s son, picked up a boy who could not walk alone and hurriedly followed his mother and four other children from the bridge. Hugh, who walked with a slight limp and was behind the others, remained on the track. The engineer saw Hugh and applied the brakes, decreasing the train’s speed to 30 m.p.h. Charles ran 185 feet back to Hugh, reaching him when the train was 325 feet away and then traveling at 20 m.p.h. Realizing that there was no room on the bridge to stand while the train passed, Charles carried Hugh to the edge of the ties and jumped downward four feet onto a girder two feet wide 14 inches from the side of the bridge. After the train came to a stop 700 feet beyond them, Charles climbed back onto the ties with Hugh and carried him from the bridge. 44116-4113
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