'All-star' Kent firefighter saves woman before car struck by train

Jeff Saunders, Record-Courier
·4 min read
Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley stopped on his way home after his shift the morning of Jan. 17 to help a woman out of her car, which had become stuck in snow on railroad tracks, before it was struck by a train. Paisley is shown here at the Kent fire station on January 25.
Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley stopped on his way home after his shift the morning of Jan. 17 to help a woman out of her car, which had become stuck in snow on railroad tracks, before it was struck by a train. Paisley is shown here at the Kent fire station on January 25.

Pat Paisley’s latest 24-hour shift at the Kent Fire Department was over and it had been a busy one, what with all the snow, but then he found himself with one more job to do.

More: Train hits unoccupied car stuck in snow on tracks in Ravenna on Jan. 17

After leaving the South DePeyster Street Fire Station the morning of Jan. 17, the firefighter prevented a possible tragedy by getting a woman out of her car before it was struck by a train.

Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley is shown here at the South Depeyster Street fire station Jan. 25, eight days after he got a woman out of her car safely before it was struck by a train.
Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley is shown here at the South Depeyster Street fire station Jan. 25, eight days after he got a woman out of her car safely before it was struck by a train.

“Nice young lady and I was just glad I got to help,” said Paisley, who was surprised that what he did had drawn attention.

Fire Chief Bill Myers said that knowing Paisly, his actions were not that much of a surprise.

More: Streetsboro police seeking public's help with investigation of Route 43 crash Jan. 12

“He's a super nice guy, just a very humble man,” said Myers. “And just very dedicated to the job and just very interested in helping people. His overall demeanor is, you know, he's an all-star.”

The railroad crossing where Stow street becomes Summit street, just east of the Tannery Park parking and bridge in Kent, is where Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley got a woman out of her car stuck in snow shortly before a train struck the car.
The railroad crossing where Stow street becomes Summit street, just east of the Tannery Park parking and bridge in Kent, is where Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley got a woman out of her car stuck in snow shortly before a train struck the car.

It was the day of the big snow storm that had started the night before and the shift had been an especially busy one. Paisley said that normally he would have been on his way home to Brimfield within a few minutes after the shift ended at 8 a.m. so that he could see his kids off to school. But it was Martin Luther King Day, so no school, and anyway, he had to clean the snow off his truck.

“Which is interesting when you think about how timing works,” he said.

More: Route 303 in Streetsboro closed Jan. 12 after crashed truck loses steel coil

It was at least 8:30 a.m. when he was westbound on Summit Street. Just to the west of his turn to the south on Mogadore Road, Paisley saw the stopped car on the railroad tracks crossing Summit, around where it becomes Stow Street.

The railroad tracks where Stow street becomes Summit street, just east of the Tannery Park parking and bridge in Kent, had a lot more snow on them when Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley stopped on his way home from work and got a woman out of her stuck car before a train struck it the morning of Jan. 17.
The railroad tracks where Stow street becomes Summit street, just east of the Tannery Park parking and bridge in Kent, had a lot more snow on them when Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley stopped on his way home from work and got a woman out of her stuck car before a train struck it the morning of Jan. 17.

“Those are the CSX tracks, those lower tracks, which are really busy tracks,” he said.

He pulled over and walked to the stuck car to investigate and found the woman sitting in the driver’s seat.

“I explained to her that she's on the track,” said Paisley. “I mean, there's so much snow, I'm guessing she didn't see them because she wasn't aware that she's on the railroad track.”

Paisley said he did not have his work radio on him and his cell phone was dead, so he borrowed the woman’s phone to call the city’s dispatch center in the hope of contacting the railroad to stop any approaching trains until the car could be moved.

But it was too late.

“I’m on the phone with dispatch and right at that point I hear a train horn,’” Paisley said. “Well, you know, I'm sure I said a choice word or so but, Oh, darn. At that point, you can see it coming from the south of Kent. There's like a bend in the track so you can see the light and stuff. Well, I explain to the lady, ‘Hey, we need to get going. Unfortunately, your car is gonna get hit by this train, but we need to get you out of here.’”

He got her out of the car as the bells at the crossing were going off and the gates were coming down and walked her to his truck where she could get in out of the cold.

Myers said that after a train struck an unoccupied car stuck in the snow at a crossing on South Diamond Street in Ravenna earlier that morning, CSX had started slowing down its trains in the area. Paisley estimated that the train approaching the Summit Street crossing had been going at 25, maybe 30 mph, and the engineer tried to stop it, but it still hit the car.

“[The woman] was shook up, but, you know, I can understand that. I'm sure it was kind of a freaky thing for her,” he said.

He added that he car was probably damaged beyond repair.

“I don't know if it was a direct hit,” Paisley said. “I think probably the front of the car. I know that the windows broke. I think the bumpers fell off and the airbags all went off and stuff like that. But it was, yeah, definitely not drivable. But I would imagine it was totaled. Typically, when the airbags go, it’s totaled.”

After the train stopped, Paisley walked over and met with the train’s conductor to assure him that no one had been in the car.

“Pat is just one of those guys that he just is very conscientious about what he does and the work that he does,” Myers said. “The important thing that he did, he took action, you know. A lot of people may have even driven by this, this young lady on the tracks. I don't know. But Pat took action. He saw something that was out of the ordinary. And he said, ‘You know what, I'm going to check this out.’ And sure enough, it made a difference. It made a difference.”

Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley stopped on his way home after his shift the morning of Jan. 17 to help a woman out of her car, which had become stuck in snow on railroad tracks, before it was struck by a train. Paisley at the Kent fire station on January 25.
Kent Firefighter Pat Paisley stopped on his way home after his shift the morning of Jan. 17 to help a woman out of her car, which had become stuck in snow on railroad tracks, before it was struck by a train. Paisley at the Kent fire station on January 25.

Paisley summed it up even more succinctly.

““I guess right place, right time, I think,” he said.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: All-star' Kent firefighter saves woman before car struck by train