Life in Lodi: The Village Has a Real, Live Hero

Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Her­itage Dic­tio­nary, a “hero” is a “per­son noted for feats of courage or nobil­ity of pur­pose, espe­cially one who has risked or sac­ri­ficed his or her life.”

There is a gen­uine hero resid­ing right here in the lit­tle vil­lage of Lodi. Sam Huff­man is just 20 years old, but fel­low Lodian and octo­ge­nar­ian Mar­guerite Jones is alive because of his self­less courage.

Jones, who uti­lizes a wheel­chair, was en route to a party this past Sat­ur­day night. As she crossed the rail­road tracks that bisect Lodi to get to what folks here refer to as the “east side,” the wheels became entan­gled in the rail, leav­ing her trapped in the path of an oncom­ing train trav­el­ing at an esti­mated 40 miles per hour.

By the time Huff­man, who had heeded a stop sign at the adja­cent inter­sec­tion, heard the train approach­ing, the cross­ing arms were down, the warn­ing lights flash­ing, and the bells ring­ing. He glanced in his rear view mir­ror, saw Jones, and took action: He threw his truck into reverse and sped to Jones’ side, jumped out of his truck, and pulled her out of the wheelchair.

“I prob­a­bly got three steps away (from the tracks) before (the train) hit her wheel­chair,” Huff­man said.

Lodi Police esti­mate that the train missed Jones and Huff­man by a mere three feet.

In fact, the engi­neer stopped the train after it struck and destroyed Jones’ wheel­chair, think­ing that the loco­mo­tive had, in fact, hit Jones and Huffman.

Down­play­ing his remark­able act of courage, Huff­man told KXTV News that he reacted, but only real­ized what he’d done later. “I’m just really glad I got the oppor­tu­nity to save a life. Because not every­body gets that opportunity.”

Jones, who suf­fered no injuries, was shaken, but con­vinced that Huff­man was an angel sent by God to res­cue her. “He put him here so he could pull me off the tracks,” she said.

It was inspir­ing to pick up the Lodi News-Sentinel this morn­ing and, in the midst of reports about esca­lat­ing gas prices, the sput­ter­ing econ­omy, California’s ongo­ing fis­cal cri­sis, and var­i­ous nat­ural dis­as­ters, find this story about Huffman’s brav­ery. There is indeed a hero “stuck in Lodi.”

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