Eddie Palacios stood on the subway tracks, between a woman and an approaching train, and thought to himself: Do I have enough time to get out of the way if the train doesn't slow down? Is the woman off the tracks yet?
Should I have done this?
The train did slow down, the woman did make it back to the platform, and Palacios found himself shrugging off repeated praise for what he did, including from his boss in Washington, D.C.
"I was more trying to get everything together in my head, as to whether it was a dumb act, but I don't think so," Palacios said Thursday morning. "People on the train asked what happened, I said someone fell and I was just trying to help out a little bit. It wasn't a big deal for me."
Palacios said he was headed to O'Hare International Airport, where he works for the Transportation Security Administration, around 11 a.m. Wednesday when he noticed some commotion on the other side of the Blue Line platform at Chicago Avenue.
"I heard two people yell that she fell, the train's coming, you gotta get up, you gotta get up," he recalled. "I saw her on the floor. I thought because she looked shorter, I thought it was a kid.
"But I was calculating, I didn't want anyone to think I was being reckless or anything," he said. "I was thinking when I could get off the tracks myself."
The train slowed to a stop in front of Palacios, who was looking behind him to check on the woman while trying to keep an eye on the train.
"I was focused on the train because I had to make sure I moved. When I looked back, she was able to orient herself to get on her feet to walk back close to the platform so they could pull her up," he said. "There were two or three people trying to pull her up from the bottom of the train tracks where she was at."
Around this time, an operator from another CTA train walked toward him and the woman, and Palacios figured he had probably radioed the operator of the approaching train about what was going on.
"It wasn't clear at first because the lights were on and they kept getting closer. When I saw the other conductor come, from the northbound stop, I knew everything would be OK because he had his radio in his hand," he said. "I asked the conductor to give me a hand and he actually helped me back up. And with the train, I actually think I could have gotten myself over real quick if I needed to."
The woman, who appeared to be in her 20s or early 30s, appeared to have a gash on the back of her head. She was taken to a hospital to be treated and Palacios said he did not get her name.
Tammy Chase, a spokeswoman for the CTA, said the operator of the train was aware of the woman on the track and was already slowing down before Palacios placed himself between it and the woman. But Palacios did not know that.
The incident was caught on video by a DNAinfo reporter, and news of Palacios' actions quickly spread. One of the many calls he received Thursday was from TSA Administrator John S. Pistole.
"I was taken back," said Palacios, who has worked at the agency for 12 years. "He wanted to get my version of the events and he wanted to say that he was proud that I worked at TSA. I actually said it's not you who should be proud, it's I who should be proud in the sense that they give us training and tools to help us."
On the TSA's website, the federal security director for O'Hare, Kathleen Petrowsky, said Palacios "put himself in harm's way to save another, he is a hero pure and simple. Because of his brave actions, a person is alive today."
But Palacios continued to insist that "it really wasn't a big deal. I appreciate people saying I did something, but it was just something that I thought I had to do."
Palacios, 50, grew up in Pilsen, where much of his family still lives, and moved his family to a neighborhood nearby about 10 years ago. His son, 19, is a student at the University of Chicago. His daughter is about to turn 14 - "she makes that perfectly clear, 14 going on 20" - and is a student at Skinner elementary school.
He and his wife Carolina went to Benito Juarez High School together but didn't meet until after high school. They have been married for 26 years.
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Hero jumps in front of CTA train
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