(The following story by Kathryn Grondin appeared on the Daily Herald website on March 3.)
CHICAGO — A Lockport man was hailed a hero after pulling a woman to safety just moments before an Amtrak train struck her motorized scooter in Downers Grove Tuesday.
An unidentified elderly woman attempted to cross the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railway tracks on Main Street at about 2:30 p.m., said Doug Kozlowski, public information officer for the village.
One of the wheels on her scooter got lodged between a rail and the crosswalk as an Amtrak train, en route to Chicago from Los Angeles, approached.
An unidentified passer-by tried to move the woman and her chair off the tracks, Kozlowski said, but the handlebars broke off and the scooter remained stuck.
“At that point, they realized a train was barreling toward them,” he said.
With the train’s horn blaring, the man pulled the woman out with only moments to spare, Kozlowski said.
“He got her out of harm’s way. Seconds later the train hit,” Kozlowski said.
Pieces of the chair flew 800 feet, he said. No one was injured from the debris.
News traveled fast in downtown Downers Grove.
“Whoever it is, the guy’s a hero,” said Main Street Barber Shop owner Rich Wayne.
Kozlowski, who was on the scene shortly afterward, said he was impressed by the good Samaritan.
“He was a humble guy by all accounts,” Kozlowski said. “Everyone was shaking his hand, telling him he was a hero. He was like, ‘It was nothing that anybody else wouldn’t have done.’”