Inches from death... the drunk saved on Tube line

A drunken woman had a miraculous escape after falling in front of a speeding Tube train in America.

The 26-year-old woman fell onto the tracks after losing her balance as she stood at the edge of the platform smoking a cigarette, apparently after a night out.

The incident, in Boston, was captured on CCTV and the dramatic pictures show passengers frantically waving to alert the driver of the oncoming train to stop.

The woman toppled onto the track and momentarily lay still after appearing to touch the 600-volt electrified third rail. But the driver of the Orange line train Charice Lewis was able to stop half over the unidentified woman's body as she lay between the tracks.

Ms Lewis, 27, who with station inspector Jacqueline Osorio, 29, has been presented with awards praising their swift and decisive actions, said: "As I'm approaching, the lady pops her head up. I'm thinking: Oh my God, somebody is in the pit.'"

She said she could see that something was wrong because other passengers were trying to wave down her train as it entered North station at 10.24pm last Friday.

Ms Lewis, a mother who has worked on the Tube for three years, said: "They were all waving a little bit too much and they were all really really close to the yellow line, which they're not supposed to be, which is obviously telling me, slow your train down, slow your train down'.

"I did in an emergency exactly what I'm supposed to do. It stopped just in time."

She added: "I don't consider myself a hero, I just did what I was supposed to do. We don't have control over what some of our passengers do or what happens before they get into the T but there's a lot of T employees that do what we're supposed to do."

Ms Osorio said: "It's a miracle. Me being a mother, I would love to hear my child coming home safely every day."