Kewanee man hailed a hero after saving mother and daughter

A Kewanee mother and daughter are thanking a good Samaritan, after he saved their lives last Tuesday.

Patty Poulos and her mother Sheila Tunnicliff were driving to breakfast. As they came up to the train tracks on Main Street, the lights starting flashing and the rails went down, signaling a train was coming. Patty stopped the car, but then, she was hit by another car which pushed her's onto the tracks. A man not paying attention to the lights had hit her. Patty believes the force of the accident hit the kill switch in her car because the car died on the tracks. Knowing she couldn’t unbuckle and carry her 91 year-old mother to safety, Patty tried pushing the car off the tracks. Unsuccessful, her mother sat in the car watching the train get closer.

It was then that Patty says God put an angel in their path.

“I was just starting to get it pushed when I seen [sic] a guy in the other side of the tracks in a red truck jump out and come running behind me,” says Patty Poulos.

Rod Verschage had stopped on the other side of the tracks. He noticed Patty struggling and jumped to their rescue. As Rod pushed, he got the car off the tracks right before the train went by.

Patty and her mother Sheila thanked Rod for saving their lives.

“I didn't need to be praised for it; I don't want to be praised for it. I would just hope that other people would've done the same thing,” says Rod Verschage.

Patty says the young man who hit her did not get out to help, but did stay behind to talk to police.