Charles A. Overby saved Keith D. Whitlock from being killed by a train, Gainesville, Georgia, May 29, 1963. Keith, 2, wandered to a railroad track and stood on the ties just outside the rail as a passenger train approached to within 400 feet of him at high speed. Charles, 12, schoolboy, sprinted 35 feet to the track as Keith’s mother also ran toward her son. The engineer saw Charles and the mother but knew he did not have time to apply brakes with any effect. The mother was 10 feet behind Charles, who ran on the ties and ballast. As the mother jumped from the path of the train, Charles continued to Keith, hooked one arm around his waist, and then leaped from the track, barely clearing the side projection of the engine. The train passed at unreduced speed.
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