Engineer Larry DuBoise climbed onto the front of a train and relied on split-second reflexes to save an 18-month-old boy on the tracks.
"It happened so fast that my mind was thinking - it was going like a computer, a thousand miles an hour," DuBoise recalled.DuBoise, 45, a railroad engineer from Winslow, Ariz., was among 20 people honored Thursday by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, which recognizes people who risked or lost their lives while trying to save others.
DuBoise, an assistant engineer for Amtrak, became a hero soon after the train he was working on came around a blind curve at 60 mph in Isleta, N.M., about 20 miles outside Albuquerque, on May 16, 1992.
Engineers saw the toddler, Jeremy E. L. Abeita, facing away from the train and walking along the tracks. He didn't respond to the train's whistle and bell, DuBoise said.
While the crew braked the train with all they had, DuBoise ran onto the front catwalk and started yelling and waving Jeremy to the left.
But the 16-inch-high rail was too high for Jeremy to step over, and he started to crawl, hands on one side of the rail, knees on the other.
DuBoise, who is 6 foot 2 and 200 pounds, quickly climbed down the side of the engine and wedged his legs above the bottom step. Gripping a hand rail with his right hand, he leaned down and dangled his hand where Jeremy's body would hit it.
The engine's cowcatcher struck Jeremy and knocked him onto his side. When he appeared in DuBoise's field of vision, the engineer took hold of his shoulder and swung him out of the way. The toddler lost a foot in the accident.