David Darmon, 29, of Haifa was in the right place at the right time - and saved two lives in the process. Driving to military reserve duty this past Sunday morning, he saw a car stuck on the railroad tracks just in front of him. With the barriers beginning to be lowered and the warning bells ringing, he was close enough to hear the young woman in the passenger seat screaming in fright as a train bore down on them. The woman driver in front of him appeared to be frozen in fright as well, and Darmon acted instinctively: He drove ahead into the car, pushing it off the tracks. "By the time the train passed, we were both safely on the other side," he related afterwards.



Racheli, the 19-year-old sitting next to her mother the driver, told Yediot Acharonot, "We were on the tracks, and the train was coming closer. The engine died, because there was some problem with the gears. For a second I thought of getting out and running away, but I couldn't leave my mother alone in the car. She was paralyzed in shock. I saw there was nothing to do, and that in another moment I would be dead. I started to scream so that my mother would wake up, but it didn't work. I thought, that's it, it's the end. Suddenly, I felt a bump from behind. For a second I didn't know where I was. Then we got out of the car and burst out crying. The driver behind us was our savior angel."