Bus Driver Pulled Disabled Man Off Tracks as Train Approached

A Riverside bus driver pulled a disabled man off railroad tracks Oct. 24 as a train approached, and the man credits the bus driver with saving his life, Riverside Transit Agency officials said this week.

Here is the RTA account of what occurred three weeks ago today, Nov. 14:

Ted Jenkins, an Riverside Transit coach operator for 24 years, was walking home from work when he spotted a wheelchair on the side of a busy road, a few feet away from railroad tracks in the City of Riverside.

Jenkins looked down the tracks and saw a person. Then he heard the sound of an approaching train.

"It was getting really dark out," Jenkins said. "So I just started moving fast toward this guy who was laying there on his back just a few feet away from the tracks. I started calling out to him and he moved around a little bit and that was a good sign."

The man on the tracks was Joseph Larry, a frequent bus rider Jenkins knew as a passenger on Route 1, RTA officials said. When the coach operator arrived at Larry's side, he pulled him away from the tracks, dialed 911, and waited with him in the dark for paramedics to arrive.

Later, when Larry woke up in an Inland hospital he had no memory of what happened, only that he may have had a bad reaction to new medication and blacked out. A few days later, after Larry was discharged from the hospital and home resting, he heard a knock at the door. When the door opened, Jenkins was on the other side.

Jenkins, who had ridden an RTA bus to Larry's house, wanted to check on his friend.

The driver told Larry about everything, including how when Larry was lying on the ground when the train was passing he asked over and over where his hat was and how Jenkins had told him he found it in the dirt and everything was going to be fine, and then how he waited with Larry in the dark for the paramedics to arrive, and how he made sure they took the wheelchair with them to the hospital.

Jenkins had turned down an opportunity to work overtime that day, RTA officials said.

"I didn't take it for some reason," Jenkins said. "If I had worked overtime, I wouldn't have been there to help this guy. Things happen for a reason and this was divine intervention."

Larry is doing much better these days. He credits Jenkins with saving his life.

"I could have been hit by a train or just died out there in the dark," he said. "RTA has a good man working for them. He's a true hero."

RTA Chairman and County District 5 Supervisor Marion Ashley praised Jenkins.

"We are privileged to have Mr. Jenkins work for us for more than 20 years," Ashley said. "He has always been a first-class employee and this is just another example of him going above and beyond the call of duty."