Boy saves unconscious man from being hit by train

Hoang Manh Chien, a seventh grader living in Cam Thinh Ward of Cam Pha Town in Quang Ninh Province, was riding a bicycle home from his friend’s at around 7:30 p.m. last Saturday when he saw a man lying on the tracks with a motorbike on top of him.

From afar, a train was arriving but no one was around to help.

The boy reached the man and tried to wake him up but to no avail so he decided to pull him off the tracks with the train only several meters away.

As the man was big and the motorbike was on top of him, Chien had to make many attempts to successfully pull the man off the tracks.

The train arrived less than one minute after the man was moved to safety, the boy recalled.

Later, he rushed home and told his parents the story. The adults then came to the area where the incident happened and took the man, identified as Nguyen Thanh Vot, also a resident of Cam Thinh Ward, to hospital.

Vot, 69, has woken up and is now stable. He said he fell off his motorbike when driving through the area crossing the tracks. The accident knocked him unconscious.

Hoang Manh Chien. Photo by Chien’s family

Chien said at that moment, he could not wait for an adult to come because there was not enough time.

“Though I was really scared, the train appeared closer and closer and I knew at the moment that if I just stood there and watched, he would definitely have been in danger,” he said.

Nguyen Thi Hong, principal at Cam Thinh Secondary School where Chien studies, said she was moved and surprised at the same time by his action as Chien was “nice but a bit shy.”

“Even for adults, the situation would be difficult, and we might not know what to do, but as a boy, Chien was clever and brave by acting swiftly and decisively,” she said.

Local authorities and the school have organized a ceremony to praise Chien, said Do The Hieu, chairman of Cam Thinh Ward.