Houston Transit Authority volunteer Eliot Swainson, left, who came to the aid of a passenger who had fallen on the tracks this morning, gives directions to another Metro passenger.

We reported this morning that a woman fell on the tracks on the Red Line to Glenmont at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station around 9:30 a.m. DCist has now learned that the woman narrowly avoided being struck by an oncoming train — largely due to the quick thinking of Houston Transit Authority employee Eliot Swainson, 46, who was in D.C. serving as a volunteer for Metro. Swainson, who was stationed on the Glenmont platform at the Chinatown stop this morning, was able to direct the woman to safety on the track while a train passed overhead, preventing her from being struck and allowing her to be extricated safely a short time later.

Swainson told DCist in a telephone interview that as he was giving directions to other passengers on the platform, he heard shouts from other Metro patrons that someone had fallen on the tracks. Swainson and another person on the platform tried to remove the woman from the tracks themselves, but were unable to lift her.

“I saw the lights coming down the tunnel, and I had to do something,” Swainson said.

So he explained to the woman — as he had been trained to do just the day before by Metro officers — to stay as close to the edge of the track as possible, under the overhang adjacent to the platform in order to avoid being hit by the train. Metro authorities then cleared the platform and the train, cut the power to the tracks, and eventually got the woman to safety. She was transported to a local hospital “with non life-threatening injuries,” according to a Metro spokesman.

Swainson said that he couldn’t have anticipated playing such a critical role in a major situation during his time as a Metro volunteer in D.C. “I expected there to be a lot of people, and figured there would be a lot of crowd control,” he said. He couldn’t have been prepared for a fallen passenger, however, especially because Houston’s rail line runs above ground, “and none of the lines are hot,” he said.

“This was a new world for me. You still have that fear factor about what’s down below there, and what not to mess with. But we had to do something to get her to safety,” he explained. Swainson will now head home to his wife and daughter, who turned three years old today. “I’m just happy to have had the opportunity to see somebody safe,” he said of the incident.