Heroes race train to rescue paralyzed man stuck on tracks
Published: July 10, 2005
A paraplegic man from Cheyenne, Wyo., who fell from his wheelchair and was unable to drag himself off railroad tracks was saved by two men who saw his plight and lifted him from the path of an approaching freight train.
Jerry Hale and Dave Bragg, who were repairing a herbicide sprayer about 50 feet from the tracks, saw Tim Hammer struggling and ran to him as the train approached at about 55 mph. They grabbed Hammer by his arms and pulled him away from the tracks just seconds before the train sped past, crushing the empty wheelchair, Parker City Marshal Rex Amburn said.
“(Bragg and Hale) did not even look to see where the train was,” Amburn said. “Those guys are heroes. That’s for sure.”
Hammer, 42, has been paralyzed from his chest down since he was in a motorcycle accident 19 years ago.
He was in the town about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis with his parents for their high school reunion and was on his way to the Parker City United Methodist Church on Thursday to help his mother compile a list of alumni. As he entered the railroad crossing, the traffic arms came down and he panicked, falling from the wheelchair onto the tracks, he said.
Hale, 50, and Bragg, 47, are heroes, Hammer said.
“It’s one of those things that happen so quickly,” Bragg told The Star Press of Muncie. “You don’t have a lot of time to think. Just react.”
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