Teenager dies after sacrificing himself to save girlfriend from oncoming train
Screenshot/KTXL-TV

A teenager in California reportedly saved his girlfriend's life by pushing her out of the way of a train that was barreling down tracks they were walking on. The pair were on their way to a high school dance when police say they might have become distracted by their music and didn't hear the train coming despite it sounding its horns. In a last minute decision, Mateus Moore did his best to push 16-year-old Mickayla Friend out of the way while he was still on the tracks.
Friend's life was saved, although she remains in critical condition at a Northern California hospital. Moore died on the scene. Sandy Friend, the girl's mother, told the Sacramento Fox affiliate that she thinks her first love saved her daughter's life. "She had the love of a young man. He just sacrificed himself to save my daughter," she said. "She don't know that Mateus is her angel now. We haven't told her."
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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.
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