It was the difference between life and death, police say.

Ray Armstead and Ryan Saba were making their way home through a snowstorm Thursday when they noticed a car stuck on railroad tracks in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

That’s when they heard a train coming in the distance, speeding ahead for a collision with the car that had a couple in their 60s inside, the pair told The Enterprise.

The pair said they knew time was short — and headed for the car fast. The white-out conditions from the snow made it hard for the couple to see the crossing lights that warned of an oncoming train.

“They were unaware that the train was even coming; if we weren’t there something bad probably would have happened,” Armstead told CBS Boston.

Yet while the husband managed to get out of the car, his wife struggled to open the passenger’s side door, The Enterprise reported.

And with every second, the train grew closer.

“We both picked her up and dragged her over to my truck, got her inside,” Saba told CBS. “That’s when the train hit.”

“Yea we all had to duck once the train came, too,” Armstead added.

Police shared the aftermath of the high speed crash in multiple tweets.

The impact happened at 12:50 p.m., according to police, and the car flew into the air and slammed into “nearby gates and a control shed exposing live wires.”

Armstead described the collision as “a giant puff of white” to The Enterprise.

The Bridgewater Police Department thanked the two men on Friday in a tweet, saying they “saved the lives of the elderly couple in yesterdays train collision.”

But Saba told CBS he and his friend weren’t seeking praise when they quickly stepped in to save the couple.

“We’re just glad that they’re alive and everybody’s OK,” he said.

“Saving people is my calling,” he told The Enterprise, adding that he currently works as an EMT. “I just want to help people. It’s the right thing to do.”