Two women trespassing on railroad tracks in southern Indiana narrowly missed a fatal encounter with a freight train when they were caught in the middle of a bridge as the train approached, authorities said.
When the train engineer spotted the women in the middle of a 500-foot-long bridge known as Shuffle Creek Trestle, the engineer immediately applied an emergency brake and repeatedly sounded the horn. At first, the two women try to outrun the 14,000-ton freight train but when they realize it is catching up too fast, one woman lies down in the middle of the tracks.
The other woman runs off to the edge of the 80-foot-tall bridge as if to contemplate jumping off, then runs back into the middle of the tracks just as the train catches up with them.
By the time the train came to a stop it was past the bridge, running over the women in the process, authorities said.
Assuming the incident had been fatal for the two women, the engineer notified the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, only to realize that the women had survived and escaped to a nearby vehicle, fleeing the scene, authorities said.
The women have been identified by law enforcement, and the incident is now considered a criminal matter.
A representative from the Indiana Rail Road Company could not immediately be reached for comment by ABC News. VIDEO
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