A Texas woman happened to be video recording with her cell phone on Tuesday at the very same moment a Midland County deputy mistakenly pulled in front of an oncoming train while responding to a 911 call about a distressed infant, who was having trouble breathing.
The crash sends the deputy’s SUV tumbling on impact.
The deputy eventually had to be removed from his police SUV through a window.
Video of the terrifying crash recorded by Kimberly Baeza on May 21 and uploaded to Facebook contains footage from Baeza’s point of view.
It shows two Midland deputies in separate vehicles waiting at a train crossing, along with several other vehicles.
“Oh my God!,” Baeza says seconds before the train impacts the SUV.
At the time of the collision, the signal at the railroad crossing was functioning properly and a signal indicated an oncoming train, according to Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter.
Onlookers who witnessed the crash were rattled after seeing the deputy’s SUV tumble through the air after the train made impact in the nightmarish crash.
At the crossing, two train tracks run parallel.
The deputy, who has not yet been identified, was apparently aware of the signal indicated a train coming, but did not realize the train was speeding down another track, which is visible from the position Baeza recorded from.
The deputy, perhaps in a rush to help the infant with difficulty breathing, apparently did not see the oncoming train from his perspective, which caused the crash.
“I guess he just didn’t see the other train and the train just hit him head on,” Mike Lopez, who witnessed the crash and the wreckage it caused at the at the scene, told CBS 7.
Thankfully, the only injuries suffered by the deputy only required minor hospitalization for bruising and soreness throughout his body and head.
Sheriff Painter said he knows the results could have been much worse and that the deputy made and honest mistake while trying to rush to help the baby.
“When I got the call that he had been hit by a train and there (sic) was head injuries, everything runs through your head,” Painter recalled.
“You just, you pray for the best, but you expect for the worst. And thank God he’s not hurt that bad.”
Lopez, who saw the whole thing as it unfolded from across the street agreed and said the deputy was lucky to even be alive.
“Lucky man,” he said.
“Lucky somebody was watching over him. That’s crazy.”
EMS eventually reached the infant, who was safely transported to a nearby hospital along with the deputy.
At the same crossing, just a day before on Monday, a semi-truck was involved with a train in a separate incident.
