Moments before train crash, strangers rescue woman from car that was stuck on tracks

Two strangers helped pull a Colorado Springs woman from her red sedan that was stuck on railroad tracks just moments before a train slammed into her car.

Helga Rodgers told KKTV in Colorado that she had made a wrong turn when her car became stuck on the tracks on Thursday night. She said she stayed in the car hoping to save it from an oncoming train.

While she was attempting to save her car, a homeless woman flagged down a driver for help, KKTV reported.

"She said, 'You've got to help, you've got to help,' and so I quickly parked my car, put on hazards, jumped out and came over to Helga," Brad Doll, the man who was flagged down, told KKTV. "Helga didn’t want to leave her car. She wouldn’t get out of the car."

The woman who called Doll over asked him to call 911, according to The Colorado Springs Gazette. Doll is the marketing director for the newspaper, the Gazette reported.

Doll told the Gazette he couldn't see a train approaching when the woman asked for his help.

Regardless, he went to help the elderly woman who was refusing to leave her car.

He told the Gazette that the woman was "clearly disoriented" and didn't want to leave her car out of fear that it would be totaled.

But when Doll realized she could be killed if a train did happen to pass, he pulled the woman from her red sedan and placed her in the back seat of his own vehicle, according to the Gazette.

It was then that a police officer arrived on scene, the newspaper reported, and told Doll to move his car farther away from the tracks.

Once Doll did that, it took only seconds before a train slammed into the red sedan.

"The train wasn't fazed when it hit the car," Doll told the Gazette. "It was like it hit a mosquito."

Dispatchers had tried to warn the train crew about the car, the newspaper reported, but the train couldn't stop in time. No injuries were reported.

The homeless woman had left the scene before she was thanked, KKTV reported.

"Thank you very much, wherever you come from," Rodgers told KKTV. "God bless you. Thank you very much. You saved my life."

This story was originally published April 8, 2018 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Moments before train crash, strangers rescue woman from car that was stuck on tracks."