Howard T. Swisher saved Hazel M. Rood from being killed by a train, Rock Island, Illinois, June 15, 1943. As Mrs. Rood, 48, walked onto a track, on which a passenger-train was approaching at a speed of 15 m.p.h., she tripped and fell on her hands and knees between the rails, fracturing her wrist, and was unable to get to her feet. Swisher, 46, U.S. Arsenal policeman, who was on a platform alongside the track, ran 15 feet to her. Standing with one foot on the ballast between the rails and the other on the rail nearest the platform, he grasped her under the armpits and dragged her as he walked swiftly backward for six feet, clearing the track when the locomotive was eight feet from them. The train continued at a reduced speed a distance of 125 feet. 40627-3462
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