Michael Anthony Castaneda

Michael Anthony Castaneda saved a girl from being struck by a train, Redlands, California, September 20, 2024. After her mother’s sport utility vehicle became immobilized on a railroad track between crossing gates that descended, the 2-year-old girl remained in the path of an oncoming freight train moving about 10 m.p.h. Castaneda, 38, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy, was driving behind the SUV when he saw the crossing arms descend with the SUV stopped on the tracks between the gates. Castaneda then observed the mother exit the SUV and retrieve the girl from the back seat on the driver’s side before standing the girl next to the SUV, still on the tracks, as the mother leaned back inside the vehicle. Intuiting that others may be inside the vehicle, Castaneda exited his own vehicle and ran about 50 feet to the SUV, approaching the passenger side. He reached down and grasped the girl and continued running west, carrying her to safety beyond the railroad crossing about five seconds before the train struck the SUV. Meanwhile, the mother had extricated another child from the SUV and carried that child to safety on the opposite side of the crossing as the train struck the SUV before rolling to a stop about 90 feet beyond the crossing. Castaneda then returned the unharmed girl to the mother. Castaneda was not injured.

2024-0000401-10504