Aurora hero who saved man from oncoming train receives Carnegie medal

Amid a standing ovation, the Aurora hero who rescued an unresponsive man from an SUV stuck on railroad tracks seconds before it was hit by a train last year was presented with a Carnegie Hero Award medal during Tuesday's Kane County Board meeting.

"I am really thankful," Medina said later by phone. He said his acceptance speech was inspired by the Scripture on the back of the medal, John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

"If we can just reach out to other people and let them know we love them or that we care, then we'd all be in a better spot," Medina said.

Medina was one of two suburbanites among 16 people selected over the summer to receive the prestigious Carnegie medal, awarded to people throughout the United States and Canada who risk their lives in extraordinary manners to rescue or attempt to rescue others.

Antonio Raul Rivera of Bolingbrook, who disarmed and tackled a man repeatedly stabbing Rivera's neighbor, was the other suburban awardee.

Medina was driving his daughter and grandson home on the evening of Oct. 9, 2021, when he saw an SUV stuck on the train tracks near his Aurora home. He called 911 and got out to help the unresponsive 72-year-old driver, just as a train was bearing down on them.

"I knew it was close, but I couldn't leave him on the tracks. There was no way," Medina recounted later. "I had to get him out."

Medina, a 60-year-old construction worker, pulled the large man from the vehicle. He fell "like an anchor" straight onto the tracks. Medina said he grabbed the man by his arm and pants and flung him off the tracks, but they were still too close. He then rolled the man down the hill seconds before the train hit.

"As soon as I get down the hill, bam, it was over," he said. "I looked up to the right, and the train smashed the car. It was a matter of seconds."

The SUV was thrown about 1,000 feet.

Medina also was awarded the 2021 Roscoe Ebey Citizen of the Year award by Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain and was named the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago's Lifesaving Rescue Hero at the organization's annual Heroes Breakfast.