This is the harrowing moment a Georgia police officer was struck by a train as he tried to catch a burglary suspect — unaware that he was standing so close to the tracks.
The ordeal — captured on Polk County Sheriff’s Officer Andy Anderson’s body camera on Jan. 7 — shows Anderson walking along the Norfolk Southern railroad track as he responds to a report of a burglary at a nearby home.
There, he spotted a man carrying a television set, police said in a news release obtained by CNN.
As he radios for backup, a train barrels toward him — its rumblings becoming louder and louder. Anderson steps off the tracks, assuming he’s out of the path of the train.
But he’s still too close, and the train hurls him onto the ground, apparently into brush along the tracks.
He was taken to Redmond Regional Hospital in Rome, Georgia with several broken bones and was released on Sunday, according to the report.
“It just sends chills up your spine,” Police Chief Kenny Dodd told FOX 5 Atlanta. “That’s a prime example of tunnel vision. It’s real. He was so focused on the man getting away he forgot about the danger around him and didn’t step far enough off the tracks.”
The department had just started using the cameras from Blue Line Innovations a few months ago, Dodd said.
The technology captures every possible angle that investigators might need, according to Dodd.
“When Andy saw the video, he told me he was lucky to be alive,” Dodd told the outlet. “And I told him, yeah, the good Lord was looking out for you that day.”