INSIDE EDITION talks to the hero who pulled a man off the Washington D.C. subway tracks, only to be criticized for his actions by transit authorities.
"I saw a guy in trouble, he needed help… I went out and helped him," said Dimas Pinzon.
The hero at the center of that incredible train rescue relives the do-or-die drama.
INSIDE EDITION told you how a sick passenger fell onto the tracks at a station in the Washington DC metro system.
Former Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Dimas Pinzon raced across two lines of tracks, and the deadly electrified third rail, to rescue him.
"My concern was to get him out of that situation," Pinzon said.
Pinzon was waiting for the train when he noticed the man fall onto the track on the other side of the station. Pinzon started to gesture wildly, trying to tell the fallen man to get under the lip of the platform, where there is a little bit of safety from the oncoming train. That's when he sprung into action. But despite his efforts, the metro authority is saying what he did was not the right thing.
"What he did do in terms of jumping onto the track is not the safest behavior and we would not encourage anyone to do that," said a WMATA employee.
"It's really instinctive, you assess the situation and you do what you have to do," Pinzon explained.
But 57-year-old Pinzon is something of an expert on subway safety. His father was an electrical supervisor for the New York City transit system who took him into the tunnels in Queens to drill him about staying safe.
"My father taught me well, do not go near the third rail," Pinzon said.
When INSIDE EDITION's Les Trent points out that the volts on the third rail could kill a man, Pinzon jokes, "Yes, it's without a doubt not to be tried at home."
