Hero cop risks her own life to rescue man stuck on train tracks

Daring rescue in California caught on police officer’s body-cam as she pulls wheelchair-bound man from the path of an oncoming train with not even a second to spare.

Police body camera footage shows Officer Erika Urrea rescuing helpless 66-year-old

A California police officer has been praised after taking quick action when she saw a 66-year-old man whose wheelchair wheels had become stuck in the railway tracks as a train was approaching. The officer’s body-cam footage was shared by her police department on social media and has since gone viral. The man was taken to hospital with a leg injury after the incident.

California cop saves man stuck on train tracks in wheelchair

On Wednesday morning, Officer Erika Urrea of the Lodi Police Department spotted a man in a motorised wheelchair who appeared to have become stuck on railroad tracks, the police department shared on Facebook. Urrea noticed the railroad crossing arms were coming down and a train was rapidly approaching. So the officer leapt out of her patrol vehicle and ran toward the man.

The officer’s body-cam footage — which was shared by the department on social media and has since gone viral – shows Officer Urrea reach the man and ask if he can stand up. She then pulls him from his wheelchair, getting him just inches from the tracks before the train thundered past.

Both Urrea and the man fell to the ground. The 66-year-old man suffered a leg injury, which was tended to by Urrea and another officer who arrived on the scene before being transported to a hospital for further treatment.

"Officer Urrea risked her own life to save another and her actions prevented a tragedy today. We are extremely proud of Officer Erika Urrea and her heroism," the Lodi Police Department wrote on Facebook.

Source: CBS-News

Praise is pouring in for her life-saving move but 14-year veteran cop doesn’t feel heroic

Bells were clanging, a train horn blowing, and the adrenaline was pumping as veteran Lodi police officer Erika Urrea saved a man in a wheelchair stuck on the tracks from certain death Wednesday morning.

“To me, I didn’t think the train was still a ways away. But, as I got up to him, I grabbed on to him, I can see the train just approaching and it was going pretty fast,” Urrea told CBS13. “I just was like, I got to get him off of the tracks.”

Urrea couldn’t wrestle the chair free as the wheels were wedged firmly in the tracks, so she pulled the man out of his chair as the huge freight train barrelled toward the crossing near Lodi Avenue and Sacramento Street.

“And I was thinking back like man, it really felt like the train was right in my face,” Urrea said. “Looking back at the video, it practically was right in my face.”

As the train thundered past, Urrea feared the worst. “When I fell to the ground and I heard the noise like the train had crashed into something, my initial thought was I didn’t get to him on time,” she said.

The man, who suffered a leg injury and is now in the hospital, was saved. This heroic officer told CBS13 it was surreal watching her own body camera footage; never experiencing anything this extreme while wearing the badge.

“That’s when you start thinking, ‘Okay this could’ve happened and that could’ve happened,’ Just like I said, all of the different scenarios that go through your head just start pouring in,” Urrea said.

Now praise is pouring in for her life-saving move.

“She’s a true hero. Probably 99% of all cops would do the same thing. But, in that instance, for her to think and react that quickly was awesome!” Michael Bender, a witness of the incident, said.

However, the 14-year veteran cop doesn’t feel heroic.

“It’s one of those situations where if one of my family members were stuck or needed help, I would hope that someone would stop and help them and that was just the situation,” Urrea said.

Officer Urrea says she hasn’t been able to speak to the man she saved. She hopes that he is okay and recovers from his injury.

Source: GoodDaySacramento/CBS