Railway guard saves man’s life seconds before train arrives

On Tuesday night, a drunk 50-year-old man was looking for cigarettes near a train track in Long Khanh Town’s Xuan Lap Ward. At the time, the barricades were down since a train was about to pass.

Trying to breach the barricade, the man slipped and fell, planting himself face-first in front of the advancing train.

Trinh Van Tai, 33, the railway guard, managed to pull the drunk up and away two seconds before the train ran by.

Thinking an accident had occurred, the driver stopped the train, only to find the man bearing minor injuries.

 

 

Railway guard saves man’s life seconds before train arrives

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“I saw him and told him that a train was coming. He hesitated for a bit, but still decided to trespass, only to stumble and fall right onto the track,” Tai said, adding that if he were two seconds slower, both he and the man could have been hit.

Having spent 11 years at his job, Tai said he has guarded many railway locations in Dong Nai and the neighboring Ho Chi Minh City and had saved many lives in the process, but this was the first time he had to react in such a short window of time. He said many of his loved ones back in his hometown Ha Tinh in the north central region called him Wednesday morning after seeing camera footage of what happened online.

Tang Quoc Lap, deputy chairman of Long Khanh People’s Committee, said authorities are completing procedures to reward Tai for his heroic acts.