Valparaiso's Willis Dickens became an immediate hero to a young man involved in an unbelievable accident.

Ryan Gilhuly, 22, of Madison, Conn., was attempting to ride his bike from Connecticut to California. As he was riding along a viaduct near Bremen, Ind., on Father's Day, the young man was knocked over the side.

Gilhuly fell on top of a moving train heading east and was carried for roughly 69 miles before a trucker finally saw his body and radioed for help.

After the train stopped in Gary, the injured Gilhuly pulled himself up a nearby hill to the side of the Indiana Toll Road. It was here that Dickens came to his rescue.

Dickens, 49, was driving up to Chicago's north side to see his son and daughter-in-law for the holiday. As he and his family were traveling west along the Toll Road, he spotted someone on the side of the road who was bloody, nearly immobile and clearly in severe pain.

Without a second thought, Dickens immediately pulled his car over and went to Gilhuly's aid.

"We just knew we had to help him," Dickens said. "We didn't have any other choice."

Among Gilhuly's injuries were a broken neck, severe head trauma, puncture wounds on his leg and chest, and major cuts and abrasions on his body.

Dickens spent 12 or 13 minutes on the phone with 911 while rescue vehicles were dispatched to the scene. Dickens worked to keep Gilhuly conscious and find out as much information as he could. After medics arrived, Gilhuly was taken to the hospital and his parents notified of the accident.

The miraculous story isn't without its irony, however. In a "what goes around, comes around" kind of message, Dickens recalled the time when a stranger helped his own son, Brandon, who was injured on the side of the road.

"When my son was about the same age as Ryan, he had a car accident and broke his neck in the same spot [as Ryan]," Dickens said. "A passerby stopped to help him."

"Now my son is doing great," Dickens said. "He finished his masters, is playing soccer and is having a great time. We tried to relay it to Ryan that this is just a temporary thing."

After visiting Gilhuly in the hospital, Dickens also met Ryan's parents, who flew in from Connecticut.

"It was just a privilege to help someone who's father does something like that for a living," Dickens said of Ryan's father, who is a firefighter.

Ryan was released from the hospital last week and is now back in Connecticut with his parents.