William R. Bennett saved Mark R. Erickson from being killed by a train, Butte, Montana, June 22, 1962. Mark, 2, wandered from his home and stood against the rail of a railroad track on which a train pulling cars of ore was approaching at 15 m.p.h. as it descended a slight grade. Bennett, 45, railroad engineer, and the fireman who then was at the controls saw Mark when the engine was 300 feet from him. The fireman sounded the whistle and began braking action, but Mark did not move. Bennett stepped from the cab onto the front platform, grasped the railing, and swung himself downward onto a footboard at the front of the engine. When the engine was 35 feet from Mark and the braking action had not yet taken effect, Bennett leaped onto the ties and ballast just beyond the rail. In the path of the engine projections, he ran alongside the rail toward Mark, once slipping on the loose ballast. Three feet from Mark, Bennett lunged forward in a flying tackle. He encircled Mark with his arms and held him against his chest as he twisted his body away from the track and landed on the ballast with his back to the train. Immediately Bennett rolled away from the track with Mark as the engine passed at a slightly reduced speed and stopped 360 feet beyond them. Mark was not injured. Bennett suffered severe leg lacerations from the rocks over which he had rolled. He recovered in six weeks,
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