Rescuer describes 'miracle' on Chuo Line track

Hiroki Sato was hailed for pulling off a miracle after he rescued a young woman who fell from a Tokyo station platform Monday night as a train came bearing down on her.

Recalling the moment, Sato, 24, said he felt his "body moving by itself before I realized it."

Sato, who works for a social welfare corporation, leaped to the tracks at JR Koenji Station in Suginami Ward just in time to pull the unconscious woman to lie flat between rails as a train came hurtling toward them.

He squeezed into a space 1 meter high and 60 centimeters deep under the platform and felt the blast of air against his back as the train passed.

East Japan Railway Co. officials called it a "miracle."

The woman, 20, suffered an injury in the head from the fall that left her lying in a 30-cm deep space between the train and the ties that support the track. Afterward, she crawled from under the train and asked Sato, "Was I about to die?"

"Yes, you were," Sato told her and she thanked him for saving her life.

Sato spoke about his rescue efforts after JR East handed him a letter of appreciation Tuesday.

According to police, the woman alighted from a westbound Chuo Line train around 9:15 p.m. She walked unsteadily across the platform and fell off the other side. Sato was riding the same train from which she had disembarked and saw her fall. Shouting at another passenger to alert station employees, he ran over and jumped down.

The woman was on her side between the two rails 1 meter apart.

From his college rugby experience, Sato knew that people who had hit their head should not be moved. He held the woman's hand, telling her help would arrive soon.

He then heard the horn of an eastbound train headed straight for them. A passenger had pushed an emergency alert button, but the train was almost upon them. It was only 100 meters away when the driver applied the emergency brake, JR officials said.

Sato pulled the woman so she lay flat on her back in between the rails.

The train raced over her and stopped just as its fourth car had passed her. Sato then heard her ask, "Where am I?"

"I was desperate and felt no fear," Sato said. "But before I went to sleep (that night) I began recalling it and shuddered. I hope I never go through such an experience again."

In fiscal 2007, 66 people were killed or injured in 65 falls, transport ministry data shows.

In 2001, a South Korean student and a Japanese photographer were hit by a train and killed along with a man they tried to save after he fell at JR Shin-Okubo Station in Tokyo.