Heart-stopping dashcam video shows highway patrol officer saving man seconds before train hits car
CENTERVILLE, Utah - Dashcam footage captured a Utah Highway Patrol trooper saving a man seconds before a train barreled into his car on Wednesday morning.
Ruben Correa, with the Utah Highway Patrol, approached a vehicle stuck on the tracks while a train was bearing down and saw an unconscious driver in the car, according to KSL.com.
Correa then pulled the man out of his vehicle just seconds before a train slammed into the car and hurled the vehicle at least 30 feet ahead on the tracks, the report said. Dashcam video showed the dramatic incident that occurred around 6:50 a.m. Wednesday.
"At that point, I actually wasn’t really thinking, I was just doing my job," Correa told the news outlet.
Correa said that if he had arrived a second later, there would have been a much different outcome.
"That's when I realized, 'Oh wow, that was a lot closer than what I would have liked,'" Correa told KSL.com.
The unidentified driver is safe and with his family now, the highway patrol trooper said.
"I'm still trying to process everything that happened," Correa said. "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."
Utah Transit Authority spokesman Carl Arky told KSL-TV that it’s unknown at this time why the vehicle stopped on the tracks or how it got it there.
The driver had an unknown medical issue prior to the crash, Correa told KSL.com.
No injuries were reported.
This story was reported from Los Angeles.