Laurie Ann Eldridge saved Angeline C. Pascucci from being struck by a train, Cameron, New York, June 6, 2011. Pascucci, 81, was in the driver’s seat of her car after it became stuck on a railroad track near a crossing. Eldridge, 39, homemaker, was in the yard of her nearby home when she saw the stranded car and then heard the horn of an approaching train. The front of the 47-car freight train was then about 1,250 feet away but was not visible, as the train, at a speed of about 40 m.p.h., was approaching the scene from around a bend. Barefoot, Eldridge ran to the car, having to cross a creek and climb an embankment to reach the track. She shouted to Pascucci to exit the car and then, standing on the ballast, reached through the window of the driver’s door, unlocked the door, and opened it. With difficulty she grasped Pascucci by the arms and pulled her out of the car, the train approaching at undiminished speed. Eldridge took Pascucci down an embankment away from the track. When the car became visible to them, the train’s crew applied its emergency brakes, but the train could not be stopped in time. It struck the car and knocked it off the track. Pascucci was not injured, but Eldridge sustained cuts to her feet, from which she recovered.
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