Oakland, California: A transit supervisor was hailed as a hero for pulling a drunken man from the tracks an instant before a train sped into an Oakland, California, station.
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The Bay Area Rapid Transit released surveillance video showing supervisor John O’Connor spring to action Sunday after a man fell onto the tracks. The video shows O’Connor yanking the man up by the shoulders and back onto the platform seconds before the train arrives.
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O’Connor said Monday he was helping with crowd control at the crowded Coliseum station following an Oakland Raiders football game when he saw the man fall.
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“The young man just walked, I saw out of the corner of my eye I saw him going in the trackway,” O’Connor told reporters. “He came to the side, and I figured out he wasn’t going to make it. So, I grabbed him, pulled him up on the platform.”
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O’Connor, who has worked for BART for 24 years, said he was uncomfortable being called a “hero,” KPIX-TV reported .
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“There was really no time to make a decision. I just looked, and it just happened. You know, when you look at police, fire, military, we’ve got heroes on a daily basis. It really feels awkward to be called a hero.”
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BART officials said the unidentified man who fell was intoxicated and taken to a local hospital to be checked.
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He was leaving Sunday’s game between the Oakland Raiders and the Detroit Lions, won by the Raiders, 31-24.
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