Watch a Chicago man stop an oncoming train in the nick of time

An off-duty TSA worker saw a woman fall onto the tracks of Chicago's 'L' train on Wednesday, and immediately went into action.

The man, identified by DNAinfo Chicago as Eddie Palacios, 50, jumped down to the inbound tracks at the Blue Line's Chicago Avenue stop and began waving his arms to stop the train that was arriving. He was wearing a bright orange University of Illinois jacket and thought that the vivid color would attract attention. It worked; the train was able to stop before it reached the woman, and she was lifted back up to the platform by several bystanders.

Witnesses are unsure how the woman fell onto the tracks; she was overheard telling a passenger that she slipped, while others told DNAinfo that she smelled of alcohol. After the incident, Palacios boarded a train to his workplace, O'Hare Airport, where he told only his supervisor about what happened.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"As long as I was feeling good that I did something, I didn't think anybody needed to know," he told DNAinfo. "Even when I went to work, people found out just recently, before I left, they said to me, 'How come you didn't say anything?' I said, 'Well, the only person I have to answer to is my wife.' She's the only one I talk to and everybody else is secondary. Because I didn't do it to brag about it or anything because there was nothing to brag. I was just worried about the person more than anyone else." --Catherine Garcia