MPD Officer Saves Woman's Life in Washington

His day started at 4 a.m. working a train platform in Washington, but by the end of the day, he was on the national news.   

Eliot Swainson, a 46-year-old METRO police officer, was among 100 officers from 18 transit agencies nationwide who were in Washington yesterday to help manage the crowds surging into the city for the Inauguration ceremonies.

Six-and-half hours later, Swainson's quick-thinking saved a Nashville woman who had fallen onto the track.

By 9:30 a.m., the large crowds had come and gone. There was a lull at the station, The Gallery Place, when Swainson said he suddenly heard screaming and hollering.

"A lady fell on the track. I had a clear sight and could see she was on the track. I ran over to her location - about 30 feet away," recalled Swainson today in a phone interview, while waiting to board his flight back to Houston. "She was standing up. Another patron was standing there and pulling her on the arms and trying to lift her up. It was dead weight trying to pull her. The train had entered the platform. We could hear it...and could see the headlight coming through the tunnel."

Swainson, dropped to his knees on the platform to pull the woman up, but gave up after several tugs. Quickly he remembered what he had been taught at the training class the day before by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. (WMATA)

There was a two-and-half to three-foot wide ledge tucked under the platform, which ran the length of the platform. It was invisible to anyone standing on the platform.

Swainson pushed the woman's upraised arms down and wedged her onto the narrow cove.

"All the time I had was to tell her, ‘Stay down, stay down,' and I pushed her and got my arm away. There was a 3-inch gap from the side of the platform to the side of the train as it rolled by. Any overt movement on her part would have had her bump the train. It was very confining," said Swainson.

When the train rolled by, Swainson said he could barely see if the woman remained tucked safely on that cove.

The woman, 68, was taken to a local hospital with a dislocated shoulder and released two hours later.

Swainson said this was the first time in his 15-year career at METRO that he saved someone's life.

"I'm happy that she was alive. I'm glad to hear she was getting transported with minor injuries," said Swainson, pictured on the right giving directions to a Washington commuter yesterday.

Click here to see Swainson's interview with WMATA on You Tube.