Two women cheat death by diving under a train while crossing a rail bridge

(ITN)

Footage has emerged from earlier this month showing two women in the US narrowly avoiding death by ducking under a train that was coming towards them on a rail bridge.

The pair were walking on the railroad tracks on a bridge just outside of Bloomington in Monroe County, Indiana.

While the engineer on board the train noticed the pair ahead of him and slowed down, he could not avoid catching up with them. With the bridge 500 feet long and 80 feet high, the women had nowhere to run. The engineer blows his horn several times.

Just in time, one of the women lies down and the other follows suit, with the train then passing over and missing them by just nine inches.

The two women did not suffer any serious injuries and after the train had passed, they got in a car and quickly drove away. The engineer - who was shaken up by the event - contacted the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department to report the incident and the women were eventually identified. It is now considered a criminal case.

“The consequences of trespassing on railroad-owned property are never taken seriously by those choosing to do so, and this incident at Lake Lemon is one of the most glaring examples I’ve seen in more than 40 years in this business,” Tom Hoback, of the Indiana Rail Road Company, told WXIN-TV, the local Fox news station.

“In this case, not only did two trespassers narrowly escape a horrible death, but had the heavy train derailed due to the emergency brake application—which isn’t uncommon—it could have taken down the bridge, possibly killing the engineer as well,” he said.