NEW MEXICO - Senior Airman Eric Slaugh was returning to Cannon Air Force Base from leave in December when he encountered a snowstorm in northeastern New Mexico, a storm that would detour him into assisting in saving someone's life.

After missing a turn because of the near whiteout weather conditions, the Slaugh family ended up in a traffic jam due to an overturned semi-trailer that was blocking the highway.

All of these small setbacks led Airman Slaugh, just a few miles outside of Prewitt, N.M., to be a couple of cars back from a man who, while taking a quick restroom break from the gridlocked traffic, would be struck by a train.

"I watched the train go by and he didn't come back," said Airman Slaugh, assigned to the 27th Special Operations Component Maintenance Squadron.

Airman Slaugh would later learn that the man was standing in one set of tracks waiting for a train to go by so he could get back to his vehicle. But due to the noise of the westbound train he was paying attention to, the man didn't see the one traveling in the opposite direction heading directly toward him.

According to a memo from the New Mexico State Police, the man noticed the train at the last second and managed to jump mostly out of the way, though he was struck and knocked back from the blow of the train.