Heroic Act Saves Elderly Man from Tragedy at Level Crossing in Nijlen

2023-07-16 10:50:00

In Nijlen, in the province of Antwerp, we escaped a terrible tragedy. While strolling in the town center of the small Flemish town, an elderly person (whose identity has not been communicated), who was moving around with the help of a walker, was afraid of his life. Indeed, while he was crossing the level crossing of the commune at a slow pace, the barriers closed in front of him. Faced with the impossibility for him to lower himself to pass below the obstacle, he was forced to circumvent it. Which made him waste even more time.

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Seeing the difficulties of the person, Christophe, a motorist who was waiting in front of the level crossing took his courage in both hands to help him. He thus moved the barrier aside to allow the elderly person to cross the barrier. On images proposed by HLN, we see that it was not long since a few seconds following the passage of the elderly person, the train crossed the level crossing at full speed.

“I don’t think this man was aware of the proximity of the danger,” explained Christophe to Laatste Nieuws, “he continued to walk but very slowly. And as it was not progressing, I got out of my car to help him.

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If the elderly person did not seem to have realized the imminent danger, many witnesses saw the scene, horrified: “A cyclist literally had to stop for a moment to recover in particular.” It was only the next day that the old man realized that Christophe had probably just saved his life. The latter also visited him at the rest home the next day.

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