An Islandia man is being hailed as a hero after helping save the life of a woman who had fallen face-first onto the train tracks after being punched by a man at the Central Islip Long Island Rail Road station.

Martin Diaz arrived to a round of applause on the train platform this morning, where he goes every work day to catch the 7:26 a.m. train to Manhattan.  

On Wednesday, he says he saw a woman get punched in the face and fall onto the tracks. 

"My immediate reaction was just go down there," Diaz told News 12 Long Island. 

And that's what he did. He jumped down to the tracks and lifted the woman back up to the platform, saving her life. People on the platform then helped him back to safety. 

"I just felt so bad for her. It could have been my wife, my sister," says Diaz. 

Diaz says he had no time to process what happened. He had to catch his train. 

"He did it without even thinking. It was like God sent him there," says commuter Cindy Sandow, of Smithtown.

Prosecutors say a train was only 60 seconds away and that the victim reported seeing train lights. The 28-year-old woman suffered three fractured vertebrae and had substantial swelling. She has since been released from the hospital and is doing OK. 

MTA police say the man who punched the 28-year-old woman is 34-year-old Troy Liddell, of Central Islip. He's charged with assault and reckless endangerment. 

Witnesses say Liddell doesn't take the train but he sometimes walks to the station to buy cigarettes. They also say he's a regular at a nearby BP gas station and buys beer a couple times a day. That's where police waited for him and then arrested him Thursday afternoon.