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The Source for Public Transportation News and Analysis December 13, 2013
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Riverside Driver Rescues Man from Fall onto Train Tracks

Longtime bus operator Ted ­Jenkins was on his way home from work recently when he spotted a wheelchair on the side of a busy road, a few feet away from railroad tracks that slice through the city. As he looked down the tracks and saw a man’s body, he heard the sound of an approaching train.

“It was getting really dark out,” said ­Jenkins, a 24-year operator with the ­Riverside Transit Agency (RTA), Riverside, CA. “So I just started moving fast toward this guy who was laying there on his back just a few feet away from the tracks. I started calling out to him and he moved around a little bit and that was a good sign.” He pulled the man away from the tracks, called 911, and waited in the dark for paramedics.

The man on the tracks was Joseph Larry, a frequent RTA customer whom Jenkins actually knew as a passenger.

After Larry returned home from the hospital, Jenkins went to visit—having ridden an RTA bus to Larry’s house.

Larry credited Jenkins with saving his life. “I could have been hit by a train or just died out there in the dark,” he said. “RTA has a good man working for them. He’s a true hero.”

RTA Chairman Marion Ashley also applauded Jenkins’ heroism: “We are privileged to have Mr. Jenkins work for us for more than 20 years. He has always been a first-class employee, and this is just another example of him going above and beyond the call of duty.”

Joseph Larry, seated, credits RTA Coach Operator Ted Jenkins with saving his life.

 

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