See it: MTA employees rescue 3-year-old with autism from train tracks in Tarrytown
NEW YORK -- The MTA is calling five of its employees heroes for rescuing a toddler from the train tracks in Westchester County earlier this month.
CBS2 has obtained the heart-stopping video of the rescue.
An emergency call over the radio snapped engineers to attention aboard the Hudson Line train in Tarrytown.
The video shows the engineers driving slowly, with their eyes peeled.
"What is it? Is that a kid?" one asks.
They stop the train and assistant conductor Marcus Higgins jumps down and runs 40 yards along the tracks.
The 3-year-old boy was on top of the electrified third rail.
The conductor is seen carrying the toddler to the side and waits with the boy, who was cowering along the fence when the train pulls forward.
They then bring the frightened child on board.
The next challenge was finding out who he was.
"Hey, do you know where mom or dad is?" an engineer asks.
While that was happening, the MTA says two signal maintainers happened to see a woman sobbing with her daughter on a street corner nearby. She explained that her 3-year-old son, who has autism, was missing.
With the help of police, they brought the mother and daughter to the train station.
"Looks like the family's here. We're just trying to sort everything out," an engineer says.
The mother, beside herself, goes to her son and holds him in her arms.
On Monday, the MTA recognized the five employees whose bravery and care saved the little boy and reunited a family.