A heroic off-duty firefighter leapt into action late Tuesday, pulling a woman from a car that had been pushed onto LIRR tracks after a crash just before a train strike.
The woman's car ended up on the tracks after another car broadsided it at the Arthur Avenue crossing in Brookhaven, which is just east of the Bellport train station, at around 10:30 p.m.
Pete DiPinto, a firefighter with the Brookhaven Fire Department who lives nearby, heard the collision, ran outside and pulled the driver, Janice Esposito, to safety moments before an LIRR Montauk-bound train smashed into her car, the MTA and fire officials said.
Esposito was still shaken up as she later described to News 4 how she was rescued moments before the train hit her car.
"The fireman -- I found out later it was a fireman -- came out and told me I had to get out of the car and that I was on the train tracks, and that a train was imminent -- you know, that a train was coming down the tracks at that point," she said.
DiPinto also recounted to News 4 finding the dazed Esposito in her car.
"She said, 'I don't know what happened. I don't know where I am,'" he said. "I said, 'Honey, you're on the tracks. We've got to get you off.'"
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Esposito recalled, "He helped me scoot over, I couldn't open up my door. I couldn't see anything, I didn't know what was on the tracks at all. And he helped me get out of my car."
Seconds later, DiPinto realized a train was approaching. The train slammed into Esposito's car, about 15 seconds after DiPinto pulled her to safety.
"The sound was deafening. She turned around and hugged me," he said.
Video from the scene shows the train stopped on the tracks, the car, turned to a twisted ball of metal, left in a mangled heap alongside them.
No injuries were reported as a result of the train strike.
Esposito said, "I owe my life to him at this point. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him."
DiPinto, who has two sons who are also firefighters, had a tearful reunion with Esposito later in the afternoon Wednesday.
This was DiPinto's first rescue after 32 years as a volunteer firefighter -- one that allowed Esposito to return to her husband and 7-year-old son.
"I will think of you every day the rest of my life," she told him. "You kept us a family."
