Life saver searches for hero who saved him 35 years ago

Kenan Elmaz is now a St John ambulance officer in Auckland. Photo / Supplied

"Did you save my life 35 years ago?"

That is the question Auckland ambulance officer Kenan Elmaz is asking members of the public.

As a toddler, he wandered away from his mother during a shopping trip and found himself alone on the train tracks.

In a rescue that he describes as being just like a scene from a Hollywood movie, he was plucked to safety from the path of a train by a man he now wants to find so he can say thanks.

"Back in about 1974, in October or November, a little boy was literally saved from the railway tracks as a train was about to take his life. The little boy was 2 or 3 years old," he wrote on Trade Me's chat site this week.

Mr Elmaz said the incident occurred in Levin on the Bath St rail crossing and all he knows about his rescuer is that his name was Steven and he was with his wife, Lynda.

The couple, who were in their 20s and celebrating their wedding anniversary, were going across the crossing in a taxi when they saw him standing on the tracks alone.

Hearing the bells start to ring and realising the train was fast approaching, Steven screamed at the taxi driver to stop as he leaped out the door and sprinted 50m towards the tracks.

"The train is really close, he literally leaps across the tracks as the train passes and until the train has passed, his wife and anyone else seeing the feat aren't sure if they made it with their lives or not.

"The little boy is me and I'd like to find Steve."

Mr Elmaz said the story is mostly based on what his mother told him.

"I only remember not wanting the ice-cream Lynda was trying to give me and screaming for my Mummy."

His mother, who is not named, has also posted on the site, saying she was in a store buying ribbon for her daughter's party dress when she noticed her son was no longer by her side.

After searching the shop, she went outside, where she saw a policeman and told him she'd lost her son. But he didn't seem interested.

She then spent 20 minutes searching the streets - at one stage hearing a train go by - before ringing police from a phone booth.

"I asked if a little boy had been found wearing check shorts and long white socks (yes, that is still imprinted on my mind!) They were pretty short with me, but oh the joy in hearing he was safe!

"We had Steve and Lynda to a meal to try and show our gratitude and saw them periodically after that, but then lost touch and sadly I now cannot remember their surname. We have spoken many times over the years of our own Steve, the 6-million dollarman!"

Mr Elmaz's mother picked him up from a house in Power St but he has little else to go on in his search for the couple and is appealing for help. "If I were Steve and Lynda I would like to know what became of the little boy on the tracks. And for myself, I would like to say thank you."