It is the story of Janice Esposito, who was returning from her visit to her mother. She reached the Bella post train station at around 10:15 p.m on the 10th of October 2017. She took her car, Honda Odyssey, and started to drive back home to her husband and her son. It was a 20-minutes drive from the station, she had already traveled that path quite a lot and had excellent knowledge about the route, and thus, she drove on the autopilot mode.
While she was driving back home, she suddenly met with an awful accident. Her car got hit by a T-boned Esposito’s minivan. The crash was of significant impact and led her car to reach at around 100 feet far on the railway track, from the place of the accident. She was stunned by the effects of the accident and the deflation of the airbags of the car. But the accident was not as big as it could have been because she was not too injured. She had a few bruises here and there on her body.
How the firefighter helped Janice?
Pete DiPinto, a firefighter and a retired teacher of 64, lived nearby the railroad track. He was just getting ready for bed when he heard the high-pitched sound of the banging of the cars and shattering of the glasses. The accident took place a nearby to his apartment. He immediately grabbed a flashlight and ran out of his home in his pj’s.
The first car he came across was around 2,000 feet from his front yard; it was the one that had hit Janice’s car. After affirming that the driver was OK, he moved forward to look around for the other car in the accident. Then he found Janice’s car mounted on the railroad track, all shattered and destroyed. In the meantime, he heard the bells and sounds of the signals of an oncoming train. Just then, the gates of the tracks were starting to come down. He also saw the headlight of the train from a far distance, quickly approaching the minivan.
He sprung to get Janice out of the car, but because of the crash, the door on the driver’s side was shut jammed. He looked towards her; she was utterly blank and confused. She was trying to figure out what just happened to her in the past few minutes. DiPinto shouted and told her that she is on the railroad track, and she has to get out of that place quickly to stay alive and safe. He calculated the speed of the running train and estimated it to be running at the rate of 65 miles per hour, as the train was hurtling towards them.
He ran to the passenger side and somehow managed to open the door. He hurriedly pushed aside the deflated airbags and pulled Janice towards the passenger seat to remove her out of the van. He walked speedily with her. They moved towards the back of the signal box, to keep themselves safe.
In an interview, he said that a firefighter is always on duty, and he did something that any firefighter would have done. He also noted that it was like a recreated scene of a Hollywood action film.