HOBE SOUND, Fla. — Some fast action by a South Florida man helped a woman avoid a terrifying collision with a train after her vehicle got stuck on railroad tracks last week.
Josiah Baur, 23, of Port St. Lucie, jumped out of his vehicle at a crossing in Hobe Sound and helped Debbie Spoelstra get out of harm’s way, WPTV reported.
On Aug. 7 at about 5 p.m. ET, Spoelstra made a left turn and attempted to drive over railroad tracks when a crossing arm came down on top of her vehicle, trapping her on the tracks, according to the television station. Her vehicle became stuck when the antenna became caught on the crossing arm.
Spoelstra told WPBF that she was not texting or otherwise distracted when she made the short left turn onto the road that crossed the tracks. She said she was simply caught off guard.
“I was in a panic. What I did is, I put my car in reverse, and apparently the gate got stuck on top of my car on the antenna,” she told the television station. “So, when I tried to reverse, it would not let me reverse. I was kind of frozen. I sat there, I saw the train.”
Dash camera video from a nearby motorist captured what happened next, WPEC reported.
A train horn can be heard in the video, and then a man began running toward Spoelstra’s red vehicle from the other side of the tracks.
A railroad crossing arm came down on a woman's car in Hobe Sound, trapping her between the gates as a train barreled toward her. Then, a stranger ran across the tracks and lifted the gate — giving her just enough time to back away. https://t.co/OGFFnCLh9j
— WPEC CBS12 News (@CBS12) August 10, 2026
“I was pretty much frozen,” Spoelstra told the television station. “Then I thought about getting out of the car, and then at that moment I saw Josiah running across the railroad tracks.
“I looked, and I saw my guardian angel coming over the track,” Spoelstra told WPTV.
Baur said he had been rushing to get home but was stopped at the tracks. He was looking at his phone when he noticed Spoelstra’s vehicle on the tracks, WPTV reported. He jumped out of his vehicle and began running toward her car.
“As I was running, I was trying to see where the train was, how far off it was, how much time and also which side of the track it was on and when I noticed it was on her side of (the) track, I’m like, ‘OK, now or never, we gotta do this,’” Baur told the television station.
Baur lifted the crossing arm, allowing Spoelstra to put her vehicle in reverse and avoid the oncoming train.
“It was incredible, and after he had lifted the gate off, I don’t know how many seconds passed by and then the train came right by, so it was a close call,” Spoelstra told WPTV. “It was very close.”
Lizzy Dominguez, who was in a vehicle with her husband behind Baur’s, was equally frozen until the man sprang into action.
“We were just saying, ‘Please, God, please, God, please, God,’” Dominguez told WPEC. “We were frozen in the car. We couldn’t move.”
Dominguez snapped a photograph of Baur and posted it on the Hobe Sound Happenings page on Facebook with a short narrative.
“In seconds, the young man in the car ahead of us threw his door open and sprinted across the tracks to reach her,” she wrote. “The train was getting closer. We watched, frozen, as he lifted the gate arm with both arms so she could back her car out just in time. The train was braking too, but if he hadn’t gotten to her, those extra seconds wouldn’t have been enough.”
Baur said he never hesitated.
“I didn’t sit there and think about it; if I sat there and hesitated, who knows if I would’ve got there in time,” Baur told WPTV. “People say she’s a stranger to me, but she’s a child of God just like I am.”
Spoelstra, who called Baur “an amazing individual,” said she plans to treat him and his family to dinner as a gesture of thanks.
“I’ll never forget what he’s done, ever,” she told WPTV. “I’m truly grateful and indebted to him.”
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