A woman trapped under a Chicago Transit Authority Red Line train was rescued Wednesday afternoon after another rider jumped into action.
The 19-year-old woman was hit by the train around noon at the Clark and Division station and became trapped underneath it.
Justin Schneider was on the train headed to work at the time of the accident when he said the train suddenly came to a screeching halt.
“The conductor got on the intercom and he made an announcement for everyone to stay calm, that he – we had a jumper on the tracks,” Schneider said.
Schneider made a split-second decision to help, and says the conductor allowed him off the train.
Unsure how injured the woman was but hearing screams from under the train, Schneider says his first instinct was to comfort her and keep her talking.
“I just grabbed her hand and I told her, I said, ‘Help is on the way. Just stay with me,’” Schneider said.
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While CTA personnel made sure all the other passengers were safe, Schneider said his next instinct was to make sure no one on the platform, including a number of children, witnessed anything traumatic.
Cell phone video of the scene showed Schneider asking other passengers to keep the area clear.
Moments later, the woman was able to crawl to an opening between the train cars, where he and other CTA employees then pulled her to safety.
“If she sees this, I hope you're OK," he said. "I don't know what the situation was leading up to it, but just know that someone's watching out over you. And there are people out there to talk to, if you were going through something.”
Details on the woman’s condition have not yet been released.
"I just hope that if I was ever in an emergency situation, that someone would do the same for me," Schneider said. "Some people have posted on my Facebook that I'm a hero and I'm not. I'm just a normal person like everyone else. It's just that we need more people to step up to the plate and help others."
