Robert Michael Sherock helped save Mark Jenkins from being struck by a train, Pacoima, California, January 9, 2022. Jenkins, 71, was inside a single-engine, fixed-wing airplane that crash-landed at a railroad crossing. Sherock, 34, was one of several police officers who responded to the scene. A crossing gate descended and a five-car, 600-ton Metrolink commuter train traveling at least 72 m.p.h. approached the crossing from a point about 3,500 feet away. Sherock, who saw the train, and another officer ran to the plane, joining another officer. The other newly arrived officer tried to pull open what remained of the mangled cockpit door. When that failed, Sherock squeezed in between the other two officers, and all three reached into the plane and hoisted Jenkins over the dashboard and through the broken-out windshield area. Sherock and the other two officers had dragged Jenkins about 15 feet from the plane by the time the train struck it four seconds later. Jenkins was not injured in the rescue and recovered from crash-related injuries. Sherock and the other officers were not injured.
