Two women cheat death as train runs them over – video

Two women narrowly escaped death after being run over by a 14,000-ton coal train outside Bloomington, Indiana.

Footage has emerged online of the two women walking on Shuffle Creek Trestle Bridge, a narrow 500ft-long railroad, 80ft above a creek.

As the train approaches, they attempt to outrun it, but one of them trips on the tracks. They both then lie down as the train passes over the top of them.

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Eric Powell, an Indiana Railroad spokesman, told the Daily Mail that the driver had applied the emergency brakes, but the train did not stop until after it had cleared the bridge.

Luckily, it had ten inches of clearance and the driver, who expected to find the women dead, was shocked to see them stand up and run away – with one shouting back that she had stubbed her toe.

They fled the scene in a car, but the railroad company has the licence plate number and plans to press charges against them for trespassing on private property.

Powell said the train was carrying 100 coal cars and travelling at around 24mph, so took about half a mile to stop.

"If they had been obese, they would have died," he said. "It would have ended very differently".