Dramatic video shows Seattle cop pulling injured man from tracks as train bears down: 'Seconds to spare'
As the bright headlight of a speeding train bore down on them and blared its horn, a Seattle police officer was captured on dramatic body camera video risking his life to pull an injured man from the tracks with just "seconds to spare," officials said.
The Seattle Police Department released the video Tuesday afternoon of the life-saving actions taken by the police officer and his colleagues who initially responded to a call of a man spotted on the lower ledge of an overpass directly above the train tracks near the King Street Station in the Pioneer Square neighborhood of downtown Seattle.
"I want to help you and I need you to hear me when I say that," a police officer is heard telling the 57-year-old man during the incident that unfolded just after 9 p.m. local time on Oct. 7, according to the video.
As officers attempted to talk the man off the ledge, officials said a police dispatcher requested an all-stop of inbound trains. However, one train already inbound could not be stopped and continued to race toward the station. The operator was apparently unaware of the emergency.
While police were speaking to him, the man appeared to lose his footing and fall, according to the video.
"The man slipped and fell approximately 25 feet onto the rocks below and suffered serious injuries and was unable to move," police said in a statement.
The video showed the man landing next to the inbound train tracks.
The body-camera footage captured officers racing to reach the man as the horn of an approaching train grew louder its and its headlight grew brighter.
"Policemen on the lower platform ran across the tracks to rescue the man while a train approached them at high speeds," police said in a statement. "An officer dragged the man to safety, risking his life, with only seconds to spare."
The name of the officer who rescued the man was not released.
The rescued man, whose name was also not released, suffered multiple fractures in the fall, officials said. He was treated at the scene by the Seattle Fire Department and taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition, according to the police.
"Due to the rescue efforts by first responders, the man survived," police said in a statement.
