Did we save a life?

So when coming home from doing my one weekend out of the month (Army Reserve) with my friend Mark, we came upon a railroad stop. The gates were down and the next thing you know it was a long freight train that just began its trip. Instead of waiting we took a detour. We back tracked a little bit but we made sure to beat that long train that was holding us up to begin with. As we drove past  the same set of railroad tracks which was located east of where the freight train started, we both noticed a vehicled parked on the tracks as if the person tried to drive on them. I said “WTF? That’s a personal vehicle.”  We noticed a person in the vehicle, it was an older man. The vehicle was about 100 feet off the intersection that is considered drive-able. The only way to put it is, he was well in there. He just sat there with his windows rolled up. We got out of my car and sprinted to the vehicle that was stuck on the tracks. At the same time another gentlemen ran to aid .  We tried to get him out of that vehicle, it was that simple, because we knew that there was a big possibility of that freight train coming back to load more cars. The man wouldn’t get out. I grabbed him and as I did that, the bells began ringing, the gates dropped, and a train was coming.  The horns were there.  There was no way of missing that sound.  We pulled him out. Mark was trying to push the vehicle to safety by himself as I held the man making sure he was ok. The third person involved stood beside me as the man told me that he is sorry and he will pay me. I will never forget those words. Luckily it was only a commuter train and it stopped in time. The vehicle was located on the rail next to the vehicle which was still within distance of being struck if the train were to pass. Throughout this incident, we were still in our Army uniforms. Irony? The cops came and without a word we walked away and drove on…. It reminded me of hollywood. We don’t know what happened to the man, but we do know he was alive and coherent when we left the scene. That’s all I have to say.

Signing off .