How one Metro-North crash survivor became a hero

Following the deadly Metro-North crash, confused passengers desperately attempted to make their way off the train, and help others who were trapped. One of those heroes, James Wallace, makes the commute from Connecticut to Manhattan regularly and he was sitting in the second train car Tuesday when the unthinkable happened, reports CBS News correspondent Vinita Nair.

"People started to panic and were starting to run back toward the back of the second car," Wallace said. "There was a tremendous amount of billowing smoke coming through at that point, we could see people moving, shapes moving around in the smoke, so we wanted very much to get in there to help people."

Wallace, 44, a former Volunteer Ambulance Corps member, searched for a way off the disabled train, while calming fellow passengers.

"I did get the attention of a woman who seemed particularly panicked and I said, 'you have to stay calm,'" he said. "Sometimes you can see fear in someone's eyes and panic; I could see that in her."

Wallace and other commuters shattered one of the train car's glass windows and opened the emergency door.

"We started to smell gasoline fumes, and the fire was getting quite a lot larger," Wallace said. "I started thinking, 'this is not the place we want to be. I said 'We gotta go. We have to go now.'"

Wallace helped set up a makeshift triage for the injured.

"I wanted to help people if they were injured, so I went up to the cemetery and found a couple of people there," he said. "A broken leg and a woman with broken ribs and we were able to hang on until EMS arrived."

After the train's impact with the SUV, Wallace and fellow passengers tried to break through to the first car, where other people were trapped, but were unable to reach them.