Moment a baby fell in front of a train...and lived

By Richard Shears for MailOnline
Updated:


Passengers watched in horror as a pushchair carrying a baby rolled off the edge of a platform in front of a train.

The pram and the six-month-old infant were dragged along under the engine as the driver desperately fought to slow his 250-ton train.

No one on the platform believed the child could possibly have survived. 

See the shocking footage here

But when ambulance officers arrived a few minutes later they were astounded to find that, not only had he escaped with just a minor bump on his head - but he was safely back in his mother's arms.

Rescue workers found the child amid the wreckage of the smashed pushchair under one of the carriages. There was a gap between the bottom of the carriage and the lines of just a few inches, but it was those inches that made the difference between life and death.

The drama, at a suburban railway station in Melbourne, was captured on video footage obtained by the city's Herald Sun newspaper.

The mother, pictured, momentarily distracted as she hitches up her jeans several feet from the edge of the platform, suddenly realises the pushchair is rolling away from her.

Enlarge   g
Enlarge   g

The carriage rolls to the edge of the platform - and, as the mother realises what is happening and darts toward it, topples onto the tracks - directly into the path of the oncoming train

Enlarge   The mother, at the edge of the track, frantically reaches as the train roars into the station - but she cannot reach her baby in time

Despair: The mother, at the edge of the track, frantically reaches as the train roars into the station - but she cannot reach her baby in time

Enlarge   Still believing the baby is dead, workmen struggle to get him out from underneath the train

Still believing the baby is dead, workmen struggle to get him out from underneath the train

She instinctively lunges towards it, but she is still two or three feet away as it tumbles over the edge.

In a split second, the train comes into the station at 30mph and ploughs into the pram.

The mother's frantic body language, with her hands to her head, leaves no doubt that she believes her baby has been killed before her eyes.

Miracle: The mother clutches her son, wrapped in a white blanket, to her after the astonishing escape Last night police and railway officials were describing the baby's survival as 'a miracle'.

They believe that the pushchair acted as a protective shield.

Another factor was the swift reaction of the train's driver who slammed on the brakes when he saw the pram rolling across the platform.

He could not stop the train immediately but slowed it enough to lessen the impact.

Jon Wright, an intensive care paramedic, said: 'All the baby needed afterwards, apparently, was a feed and a nap.'

 

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