Crime & Safety
Witness Describes How a Cop Averted Norwalk Railroad-Crossing Collision
The witness identified by police as "Simon K." tells Norwalk Patch what he saw.
After pulling out of the Cablevision parking lot onto Cross Street Wednesday afternoon, a Norwalk man stopped at the nearby railroad crossing and saw a blue SUV in front of him, its back end close enough to the tracks to get hit by an oncoming train.
“As soon as it stopped, I heard the railroad signal going off,” said “Simon K.” (as Norwalk police described him and as he asked to be described for this article).
And there was a train oncoming.
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In an interview, Simon K. said he was about to run over to the SUV and pull out the woman driving it — but then he saw a Norwalk police officer running over to the group of cars in front of her and get them moving forward a bit.
And that train was getting closer.
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See also: Train/Car Collision Averted: Cop Gets SUV out of Train’s Path
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The SUV finally moved forward itself, with less than two seconds to spare before the train, which was on the Danbury Line, rumbled through the intersection.
“It was a very close call,” he said. “She was very lucky the police officer was there. [...] I’m sure she would have been hit.”
Simon K. had a smart phone with him and took a video of what was seen from his car. The 15-second video posted to YouTube shows the blue SUV moving forward, and the train coming through within moments. By the time the train passes, the police officer, Niel Robertson, has walked back to his car.
Simon K. then contacted Norwalk police to make sure, he said, that they knew what a great job the police officer did.
“I just felt he had to be congratulated, so I emailed Norwalk police to let them know what happened,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, Simon K. sold his video to viralhog.com, which YouTube now identifies as the owner of it. He said he hopes the video and news coverage of the incident “makes people more aware of how dangerous the tracks are.”
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