Authorities are crediting a quick-thinking deputy with saving the life of a woman who was struck by a train in southeastern Kansas.

The Labette County sheriff’s office said that Deputy Gabe Vitt was in Parsons when he heard dispatchers tell emergency crews that the woman had been hit late Sunday while on foot. Vitt was only a couple blocks away from the crossing and arrived in time to apply a makeshift tourniquet to the woman’s partially severed leg. Vitt then consoled the woman until other rescue crews arrived.

Authorities thanked Vitt for keeping the woman “calm and coherent during a life-threatening event.”