He Was Looking at His Phone When He Saw Her. Seconds Later, He Lifted the Gate. A Train Was Coming.

Josiah Baur was on his way home from work, running a little late, when he stopped at a railroad crossing on SE Bridge Road and Dixie Highway in Hobe Sound on August 7th.

He glanced at his phone. Looked back up.

And saw a woman's car pinned on the tracks.

Debbie Spoelstra had made a routine left turn when a crossing arm came down directly on top of her car, catching the antenna and trapping her in place. She put it in reverse. The gate held. She tried again. Nothing. And then she saw the train.

"I was in a panic," Spoelstra said. "I put my car in reverse and apparently the gate got stuck on top of my car on the antenna. When I tried to reverse, it would not let me reverse. I was kind of frozen. I sat there, I saw the train."

Baur, 23, didn't deliberate. He threw his car in park and ran.

"As I was running, I was trying to see where the train was, how far off it was, how much time — and also which side of the track it was on," he said. "When I noticed it was on her side of the track, I'm like, okay. Now or never. We gotta do this."

He reached the gate and lifted it. Spoelstra reversed to safety.

Seconds later, the train came through.

"It was incredible," Spoelstra said. "After he lifted the gate off, I don't know how many seconds passed by and then the train came right by. It was a close call. It was very close."

Lizzy Dominguez was sitting in a car directly behind Baur's. She watched the whole thing unfold, frozen.

"We were just saying, 'Please, God. Please, God. Please, God,'" Dominguez said. "In seconds, the young man in the car ahead of us threw his door open and sprinted across the tracks to reach her."

“She's a child of God just like I am” Baur later said he almost didn't stop. He was in a hurry. He'd been looking at his phone. He calls the moment a lesson he won't forget.

"Don't hesitate to help others when they're in need," he said. "I didn't sit there and think about it. If I hesitated, who knows if I would've got there in time. People say she's a stranger to me — but she's a child of God just like I am."

Spoelstra sees it differently. She looked across those tracks and saw something else entirely.

"I looked, and I saw my guardian angel coming over the track," she said. "He's an amazing individual. He's selfless. He is my guardian angel. I'll never forget what he's done. I'm truly

grateful and indebted to him."

There's one more detail that Spoelstra keeps coming back to. Her 9-month-old grandson — born long before any of this happened — is named Josiah.

She plans to take Baur and his family out to dinner.

Source: WPTV / WPBF News