A woman with a phobia of trains overcame her fear to save a man who was moments away from being hit by a locomotive.
Tense CCTV footage shows an approaching train sounding its horn as 55-year-old João Dakizuki stumbled and fell onto the tracks at a level crossing.
Karla Gama França, who was on the school run, could be seen getting out of her car and running towards him.
READ MORE: Powerful lightning strike kills 14 cows in an instant
She lifted him and dragged him clear just eight seconds before the train passed through Apucarana, Brazil, on Wednesday (3 Jun) afternoon.
Karla, 33, later told local media: “When the train sounded its horn, I realised it was really close. I looked at him and he had fallen. That’s when I left my daughter in the car.
“I don’t even know if I pulled the handbrake or turned the engine off, I honestly don’t know – my only intention was to get him out of there.
“I nearly got run over by a car when I got out of my vehicle, and I don’t remember anything.
“When I saw him, he was already reaching out to me with his arms, with that really frightened look on his face. My reaction was just to pull him out of there.
“That strength didn’t come from me. First, because I wouldn’t have the strength to drag that man, and second because of my trauma.”
The trauma Karla referred to is siderodromophobia – an irrational fear of trains, train tracks and train travel.
Despite discussing it with psychologists, she says she cannot recall any traumatic experience that might have triggered it.
Karla, a teacher, said: “I’ve had this trauma since I was a child, so when I see a train coming towards me I start having anxiety attacks and I cry.
“At the time I managed to pull him out, I grabbed the walking frame, but when I saw the locomotive coming, I went into shock.”
Karla had to be helped away from the scene by a passer-by, as reported by Need To Know.
João, a scrap metal collector, is well known in the area and has mobility issues. He escaped the incident uninjured.
Karla said: “He was wearing shoes that were too big, so I think that’s what caused him to get stuck on the tracks.”
She added: “I really was an instrument of God, because I would never do something like that.
“My husband knows – he doesn’t cross the railway when a train is coming because I’m very afraid, very afraid. It’s the kind of fear that makes me cry, that gives me anxiety attacks.
“I can understand it was a good act, a heroic act, but I’m still scared of the scene. I was just shaking and crying, I couldn’t understand what was happening.
“The sound of the train horn stayed with me for a long time.”
READ MORE: Hero surgeons remove terrifying ‘second head’ tumour from pensioner’s neck
