Neither the early morning start nor the distraction of a smartphone managed to take a New York train conductor’s eyes off the tracks earlier this week.
He spotted a 3-year-old wandering around the tracks dangerously close to an electrified third rail, and slammed on the brakes while going 70 mph before warning all traffic that could have been passing through Tarrytown Station of the danger.
Once the train came to a stop, cameras show the assistant conductor Marcus Higgins jogging down the tracks to rescue the child.
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News reports claim the child is autistic and non-verbal. He was separated from his mother when he fell over the side of a barrier and into the cutting where the train tracks sat.
“Emergency, emergency, emergency, I need you to kill rail we got a toddler on the track,” the conductor can be heard saying.
Given the child’s disability, he didn’t take note of Higgins’ warnings not to touch the electrified rail. Once it was clear he didn’t understand, Higgins’ colleague, still on the train, started hammering the station to cut the power to the rail.
The station responded, and Higgins brought the boy on board the train where he was later reunited with his mother and sister.
