When Jos van Vijfeijken (60) saw a boy with his bicycle stuck at the level crossing in Helmond, he didn’t hesitate for a second. He jumped off his bike and ran to free the boy. A heroic deed, many people reacted when they saw the video showing Jos’ action. “It all happened very quickly”, Jos responds matter-of-factly.
When a boy on a bicycle tried to cross the railway in the Helmond district of Mierlo-Hout on Monday morning, things went wrong. He fell in the middle of the railroad crossing. His bicycle got stuck and while the boy tried to free it with all his might, the barriers closed.
At that moment Jos drove by. Every day he cycles from Deurne to work in Eindhoven. “I heard the clanging of barriers. I always like to hear that, because it means that the traffic light at the cycle path turns green and I can continue cycling,” he says.
But this time Jos didn’t cycle on. “I saw someone lying on the level crossing. Then I didn’t hesitate for a second. I put my bike down and went for it,” he recalls. The boy was already standing up, but his bicycle was still stuck. “I saw that he was a bit panicked. I grabbed the bike and gave it a good push. That way I was able to pull the bike out.”
“He swerved to the right and then he shot off the embankment.”
The two came to the side of the transition in time. A train passed by about half a minute later. “We were lucky, because it was a sprinter and it always stops at the station nearby. So it didn’t drive that fast. It was an intercity for the same money. But then I would have done the same.”
Jos and the boy exchanged three sentences before going their separate ways. For example, the boy said that he fell because he had to give way to a girl who was cycling on the wrong side of the road. “He swerved a little to the right and then he shot off the embankment.” The boy was not injured. “I asked if everything was okay, and it was. He was able to cycle again right away, so I didn’t have to provide aftercare. We then wished each other a nice day,” says Jos.
“It’s just part of it.”
A RailCam hangs at the level crossing, through which Jos’ action could be seen. “I made a video of the screen and sent it to some friends. And then I suddenly saw it on Omroep Brabant,” he chuckles.
How did Jos feel about seeing himself like this? “I saw that it all went very quickly and that I reacted alertly.” Other than that, he’s pretty cool about it. “I cycle to and from work for about an hour every day, so I often experience things along the way. It’s just part of the job.”
Watch the video in which Jos’ action can be seen here:
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