By Police1 Staff
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Two San Mateo sheriff’s deputies dragged a driver from a car seconds before a train plowed through it in a dramatic rescue captured on video, SFGate reported.
The collision happened Aug. 3 after two deputies, Lance Whitted and Erik Ruppel, spotted a car stopped on train tracks. Deputy Ruppel ran down the tracks to try and alert the oncoming train while Deputy Whitted grabbed and removed the driver from the car.
The video shows Deputy Whitted rescuing the driver before he collapses and the train barrels into the vehicle.
The deputies told the publication they didn’t think they were heroes because that’s how they were trained to respond.
“I don’t think there was time to be scared,” Rueppel said to SF Gate. “You just kind of do things as safe as you can and respond and that’s it. It kind of just happens.”
The driver, officers and crew on board the train were not injured, according to the report.