Police say 33-year-old Susan Dibene was apparently trying to hurry across the tracks with her 2-year-old daughter in a stroller even though the railroad safety arms were down.
The stroller got stuck in the tracks, but Dibene managed to get it loose just in time to push her daughter to safety. A brief moment later, she was hit and killed by the Metrolink train.
"You have so many mixed emotions," said Paul Dibene, the child's father. "Here you lose the mother of your child, yet she gave her life. I feel like she paid the ultimate sacrifice. She gave her life to save her daughter. I think in that situation, different things that could've took place. The panic and the fear could've caused you to just freeze. It could've taken both their lives."
A witness pulled the stroller off the street. The incident happened about 7 p.m. near the intersection of Mary Street and Indiana Avenue.
The girl was taken to a hospital as a precaution and is now under the care of her grandmother.
