CENTERVILLE — A Utah Highway Patrol trooper made a dramatic rescue Wednesday when he pulled an unconscious man out of an SUV just moments before it was struck by an oncoming FrontRunner train.
The difference between life and death was a matter of seconds — seconds that were bought by the train operator activating the emergency braking system just in the nick of time, according to Utah Transit Authority.
“Let’s get out of here. We’ve got a train coming!” trooper Ruben Correa is heard telling the man several times on dashcam video, becoming more excited as the train quickly approached.
Just a second before the train smashes into the vehicle — throwing it 30 feet — Correa is able to pull the man out of the car.
The dramatic rescue was captured on the trooper’s dashcam recorder.
“I was blown away seeing that video,” UHP Sgt. Nick Street said. “You have to really look close to see they actually made it.”
The tense situation unfolded about 6:50 a.m. when the driver of an SUV, a man in his 20s who was southbound on I-15, suffered an unknown medical condition, according to the UHP. The man drifted off the road, went through a fence, up a steep embankment and came to rest on the train tracks between Pages Lane and Parrish Lane in Centerville.
Correa was dispatched to the scene. He stopped his patrol car just off the freeway, positioning it so his spotlight was shining on the SUV. In his dashcam video, the trooper is seen running toward the stranded vehicle. Just a second later, the oncoming train’s lights enter the picture.
The driver, Correa said, was not conscious when he got to his vehicle, so it was like pulling dead weight out of the SUV.
“And just before I knew it, the train hit that vehicle and we were able to make it out alive at that point,” he recalled. “I think I got him out a second just before the collision.”
Despite the heroic achievement and putting his own life at risk, a humble Correa said he was just doing his job.
“At that point I wasn’t really thinking, I was just doing my job. My main concern was just getting him out and getting him home to his family,” he said.
Correa said if he had been just one second later getting to the SUV, it would have been a different outcome.
Luckily, train operator Riley Nelson had spotted the SUV from about a half mile away, the Utah Transit Authority said — despite headlights shining in his eyes from I-15 commuters. With about 21 seconds until impact, Nelson activated the emergency braking system.
“I threw on the emergency brake, and prayed that I was wrong and I wouldn’t hit anything,” Nelson said in a Facebook post. “For a split second I thought I would stop short, but trains take a long time to stop.”
The brake activated by Nelson slowed the train from 79 mph to about 30 mph. He wrote on Facebook that he saw Correa pull the man out of the car “barely a second before impact.”
“I felt immediately that they were safe, and that despite appearances, God answered my daily prayer,” Nelson wrote. “Every morning, I pray to Heavenly Father and ask that He protect me and all those around and on my train. This morning, I know He did, and I thank Him for that.”
UTA spokesman Carl Arky praised Nelson as a hero.
“Had the train not slowed down, or had Riley waited another five seconds to activate emergency braking, the outcome most likely would have been tragic,” Arky said in a statement. “In our eyes, he is also a hero and we plan to recognize him for his quick thinking and the action that he took which saved two lives.”
As he worked to free the unconscious passenger, Correa said what was going through his head was he was in danger and I had to get him out of the vehicle. It was only after the fact when he saw what happened to the SUV that he thought, “Oh wow, that was a lot closer than I would have liked.”
“I’m still trying to process everything that happened. I’m just very grateful I was able to get him out,” he said.
In the video, the driver is semiconscious after being pulled from the vehicle and can be heard asking Correa, “What happened?”
Street said the driver was checked out by medical personnel, but was unharmed. Correa said the man was very grateful that his life had been saved.
Correa has a military background, Street said, and has been with the UHP for two to three years. Street said he was amazed when he saw the dashcam video.
“For him to hang in there ... I thought this only happened in movies. A split second was all he had.”
