A quick-thinking New Jersey police officer in his seventh month on the job rescued a man who was nearly struck by a commuter train, according to a dramatic video of the incident.
Perth Amboy Patrolman Kyle Savoia’s body cam footage captured the moment he ran down the tracks on Thursday morning, yelling at the man on the tracks to move out of the way and frantically waving his arms to get the train to stop, NBC New York reported.
“Hey, bud! Hey move!” Savoia shouted. “Stop the train!”
The unidentified man ran off the tracks with seconds to spare before the train whizzed past him.
“Where’d you come from? Thank you,” the unidentified man can be heard in the video telling the officer. “Oh my God, thank you so much.”
Witnesses say the unidentified man — who laid down on the tracks minutes before Savoia intervened — later went to the hospital for an evaluation, WPIX reported.
Savoia, 22, said he was “nervous” the train would not come to a stop but acknowledged that making split-second decisions is just part of the job of being a police officer.
“As police officers, our job is to make quick decisions in difficult situations and to act on them,” Savoia said. “At the end of the day, all that matters is everyone gets home safe. Also at such an early stage of my career, to be able to make an impactful difference in a person’s life is incredible and makes me love what I do every day.”
Savoia comes from a long line of police officers in his family. His father, Sgt. Kevin Savoia Sr., served as a cop for 28 years before he died in 2016, and his grandfather was a police officer for 25 years.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.