Good Samaritan helps NC driver escape car on railroad tracks just before train crash
RALEIGH, NC. (WNCN) — With a car stuck on Raleigh train tracks Wednesday, a driver sprang into action to save the person inside.
Surveillance cameras at The Loading Dock, near Beryl Road and Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, show the crash that sent Jacob Wonder and his coworkers rushing out the door around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday.
“We hear the train blazing its horn, and as it’s coming down the people are just running, and we watch the train hit this car,” Wonder said.
Panic turned to relief as they realized no one was inside, thanks to the efforts of Aziz Habties who saw the car stuck on the tracks moments before the crash.
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Habties said he first tried to push the car off the tracks with his own car but soon realized time was running out, and screamed for the driver to get out of the car.
“I tell him, ‘Get out—just get out of the car!’ As soon as he got out of the car, the train crashed,” Habties recalled. “Then I literally I just saw the car flying in front of my head.”
According to Amtrak, the passenger train was traveling from Raleigh to Charlotte with 92 people onboard. Raleigh police said another car was also hit during the incident.
Roads in the area were initially closed but reopened just after 3 p.m. Raleigh police said that train service also resumed around 3 p.m.
Habties’ own car sustained damage during the incident. He said he thinks it was hit by flying debris from the other car.
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As it was stopped on the tracks and investigators worked, Wonder and his coworkers brought water for first responders and a service dog in training to comfort Habties’s young children.
While he was still shaken after the crash, Habties said he was glad he got the chance to help save a life.
“If we were not there, that guy—he would be killed by now,” he said. “Thank God. We’ve got to help each other.”
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