WICHITA, Kansas -- The deputy who pulled a man to safety seconds before his truck was hit by a train last Friday shared how it happened.
"I look over and see the railroad arms are coming down," explains Deputy John Scaglione, with the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department.
Deputies also see a cement truck, rolled on its side, laying on the tracks.
"I said this is really getting crappy here. I'm not having a good day," remembers Scaglione.
He sees the train won't stop in time and yells out a warning.
He runs for the truck and pulls the driver out to safety.
Both the driver, seen wearing a red shirt on dashcam video, and Deputy Scaglione get to safety less than 20 seconds before impact.
"He was calm until he heard the rail arms coming down too. And he could see because at that point the windshield was already gone," says Scaglione.
While time was limited in this case, the Department of Transportation provides a way you can quickly notify the railroad of an emergency on the tracks.
"Usually, the general motoring public doesn't always realize that it's there so we try to tell as many people that we can," explains Julie LaComb, the Executive Director of Kansas Operation Lifesaver.
A sign with a toll-free number and a series of numbers and a letter.
"The toll free number takes you to railroad dispatch and when you call and say this is the location, the numbers and letters so they know exactly where you are and contact the railroad and try and get that train stopped if there's one headed your direction," explains LaComb.
Anyone can call, not just law enforcement or first responders.
"When you call 911, they're gonna ask the normal questions, 'Where are you?' 'What's your emergency?', and then they have to get a little more detail and need to know 'Who owns the tracks?' and 'What's your location?' If you're in an area you don't know or you're panicking for whatever reason, it just saves time," says LaComb.
It takes at least a mile to stop a train going 55 miles per hour, so saving one or two minutes can be critical.
As for last week's accident, there was no time and thankfully no fatalities either.
"He was telling me he was having a crappy day. I said, 'No. You just flipped a cement mixer and you lived through that. The mixer got hit by a train and you lived through that.' I said, 'No, you're having a great day'," remembers Scaglione.
The state of Kansas has 7,000 miles of railroad track.
Of the state's 105 counties, 100 of them have tracks running through.
