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In the Nick of Time
As Katie Pritchard unloaded bags of groceries from the trunk of her car on May 1, 1989, her sons Todd and Scott played happily in the driveway. The family lived at the end of a dead-end street in Ramsey, New Jersey. So Katie was not worried about her kids wandering out to the street and getting hit by a car. But she often warned three-year-old Todd not to go near the railroad tracks. The tracks were less than 300 feet from the house, just beyond a cluster of trees.
After putting away her first load of groceries, Katie returned to her car to get more bags. She saw the boys still at play. Katie also heard the roar of a passenger express train as it rolled by. Then she went back into the house with another load of grocery bags.
Despite their mother's warnings, Todd and his 18-month-old brother were attracted by the sound of the speeding train. They walked through the trees and knelt down on the tracks. What the little boys didn't know was that a second train was heading straight for them.
Just over a slight rise to the west, a 19-car freight train slowly made its way up the incline. Rich Campana, the engineer, saw the overhead lights give the "all-clear." The passenger express train was far down the tracks. So Campana pulled the throttle to resume full speed. Standing next to him in the cab was conductor Anthony Falzo. Falzo, a 17-year veteran of the railroad, was sharing some small talk with Campana. But, as the train reached the top of the rise, the two men noticed something on the tracks about 800 yards ahead. What was it? It appeared to be two bundles or boxes--one yellow and one red. " Then the yellow one moved," said Falzo, "and we realized it was two kids."
?Campana slammed on the train's brake and blasted his air horn. Falzo knew right away that the train was going too fast to stop in time. Immediately he rushed out the engine's cab door and out onto its narrow running board. He quickly made his way to the front of the engine, and then climbed down a steel ladder to the last rung. There he hung, at the front of the train, about two feet above the roadbed. Frantically he waved and shouted at the kids, telling them to get off the tracks. They didn't move. Falzo later said that they just looked up, " as if we could steer around them."
Meanwhile Katie heard the air horn and the screech of the train's brakes. Her heart pounded as she raced outside. Just one look around told her the truth. Todd and Scott were gone! She knew that they must be on the tracks.
? Falzo thought about jumping off the train and trying to run ahead of it to save the little boys. But even as the train slowed down, Falzo knew he couldn't outrun it. So this 35-year-old former gymnast formed another plan. He decided to leap off the train just as it neared the children. That way he might be able to scoop up the boys and get them off the track in time. Falzo would have to time his jump exactly. If he leaped too soon, the train would beat him to the kids. If he jumped too late, the train would crush the boys beneath its wheels.
?Luckily, Falzo had a very good sense of timing. At the last possible instant, he leaped from the train. He took two giant strides and grabbed the children. With one child tucked under each arm, he pressed Todd and Scott down into the roadbed gravel. The outer edge of the train passed just inches over their heads.
?When the train finally stopped, the third car was perched just a couple of inches over their heads. But the boys were safe. Luckily, Scott's cut wasn't serious. After 13 stitches, he was as good as new. "There's no word in Webster's," said Katie Pritchard, "that can express our deepest, everlasting appreciation to Tony [Falzo] for what he did."
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