On the New York City subway, it's hard enough finding someone who will give up his seat to a stranger, let alone be willing to give up his life for one.
"The train was coming in like ... like ... like that!"
It happened just --
Fifty year-old Wesley Autrey, a construction worker and Navy veteran was standing on a subway platform with his two little girls, when right in front of them, a man started having a seizure.
"He kind of stumbled off his own feet and fall backwards. I see a train coming! But the train is so close! I'm like, what do I do?"
Wesley jumped onto the tracks and thought, if he could just lie on top of the man, keep him from flailing, maybe the train would roll right over both of them. The clearance was exactly 21 inches. Wesley and the man? 20 and a half.
"No way the train can stop, before this gentleman could get him up off the tracks, so he covered him with his body, and pushed him down to a point where the train wouldn't hit his head, and held him down under the tracks, while the train came and rolled right over the top of them."
It gave Wesley's children the scare of their young lives.
"I thought he was going to get killed!"
And Wesley, the scare of his too.
"I'm like, talking to him, 'Sir, you can't move, I got two kids up here looking for their father to come back. I don't know you, you don't know me, but listen, don't panic, you know, I'm here to save you."
As for the guy Wesley saved, he's 20 year old Cameron Hollopeter, and other than a few scrapes and bruises, his father says he's doing fine.
"Mr. Autrey's instinctive and unselfish act saved our son's life."
You know, the word "hero" gets thrown around a lot nowadays.
"What better way to say, to start up the New Year, than to save, save a life"
Nice to be reminded of what one really looks like.
Steve Hartman, CBS News, New York.
At 0:23 there seems to be a cut in the video, they cut out something because a sentence cuts off.