Two Indiana women are lucky to be alive after they were run over by a 14,000-ton coal train when they found themselves trapped on a railroad bridge.
Incredible video footage from and Indiana Railroad locomotive shows the women laying down in the middle of the tracks. The train, which has a mere ten inches of clearance above the railroad ties, miraculously passed harmlessly over top of them.
After the train finally stopped, both women stood up and ran away. One of the women shouted at the engineer that she had a stubbed toe, Indiana Railroad spokesman Eric Powell told MailOnline.
The women had been walking along Shuffle Creek Trestle Bridge, a narrow railroad bridge 80 feet above a creek bed outside Bloomington, Indiana, at 6.30 am on July 10.
Mr Powell said the train, which was carrying 100 coal cars, was traveling about 24mph traveling downhill when it rounded a corner. The engineer immediately put on the emergency brakes when he saw the women on the tracks.
'When you have a train going 24mph - and this train weighed some 14,000 tons - it’s going to take that train at least a half mile to stop,' he said.
'So the train gradually caught up to them. They didn't have anywhere to go.'
The women tried to scramble to safety at the end of the bridge, but one of them tripped. The video shows her friend going over to help her - just as the train overtakes the both of them.
The shocked engineer got out of the train after it came to a stop, expecting to find the remains of the two dead women. Instead, he saw them both running away. When he shouted and asked them if they were alright, one said she had stubbed her toe.
'We would estimate that there's about 10 inches of space between the ties and most locomotives. If they had been obese, they would have died. I would it would have ended very differently.'
The train company is furious with the two women for sneaking onto the trestle - which is private railroad property - in the first place.
A railroad employee happened to catch the license plate on the car when the women fled the scene. The company has turned the information over to the prosecutor's office and asked that the two be charged with trespassing.
Incredible video footage from and Indiana Railroad locomotive shows the women laying down in the middle of the tracks. The train, which has a mere ten inches of clearance above the railroad ties, miraculously passed harmlessly over top of them.
After the train finally stopped, both women stood up and ran away. One of the women shouted at the engineer that she had a stubbed toe, Indiana Railroad spokesman Eric Powell told MailOnline.
The women had been walking along Shuffle Creek Trestle Bridge, a narrow railroad bridge 80 feet above a creek bed outside Bloomington, Indiana, at 6.30 am on July 10.
Mr Powell said the train, which was carrying 100 coal cars, was traveling about 24mph traveling downhill when it rounded a corner. The engineer immediately put on the emergency brakes when he saw the women on the tracks.
'When you have a train going 24mph - and this train weighed some 14,000 tons - it’s going to take that train at least a half mile to stop,' he said.
'So the train gradually caught up to them. They didn't have anywhere to go.'
The women tried to scramble to safety at the end of the bridge, but one of them tripped. The video shows her friend going over to help her - just as the train overtakes the both of them.
The shocked engineer got out of the train after it came to a stop, expecting to find the remains of the two dead women. Instead, he saw them both running away. When he shouted and asked them if they were alright, one said she had stubbed her toe.
'We would estimate that there's about 10 inches of space between the ties and most locomotives. If they had been obese, they would have died. I would it would have ended very differently.'
The train company is furious with the two women for sneaking onto the trestle - which is private railroad property - in the first place.
A railroad employee happened to catch the license plate on the car when the women fled the scene. The company has turned the information over to the prosecutor's office and asked that the two be charged with trespassing.
Source : DailyMail , ABC , Indiana Railroad
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