Passers-by rescue woman seconds before train strikes car
Published: January 20, 2006
Passers-by pulled a woman from her disabled car seconds before it was struck by a freight train, witnesses said.
Amanda Pratt’s Ford Escort was thrown into the train’s path Thursday morning when it was broadsided by another car. Her head and arm were hurt and she was unaware that the 70-car train was approaching until the crossing gates came down, bells began ringing and the locomotive horn blasted.
Her driver’s side door was stuck.
“I panicked,” said Pratt, 20, of Walnut. “I didn’t know how I was going to get out of the car.”
A man stepped onto the tracks and opened the passenger door, she said. Another man who had been struggling with the driver’s side door ran over and together they dragged her out across the center console.
Seconds later, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad train struck the front fender of Pratt’s car, sending pieces of the vehicle flying.
“She got clear maybe 10 or 15 seconds before the train hit her car,” said Pete Gray, 40, an off-duty Fullerton Fire Department engineer who came upon the accident. “Those civilians are heroes.”
Pratt was treated at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center and was expected to be released Thursday.
The driver who hit her car suffered moderate injuries and also was taken to UCI Medical Center, said Fullerton police Sgt. Linda King.
The train proceeded to Barstow after a several hour delay, she said.
The men who saved Pratt were not identified.
“I’m very lucky that they helped me,” Pratt said. “I was just out of it. I wish I could say thank you.”
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