May 26, 2010
Baby survives train hit
MELBOURNE - A 15-MONTH-OLD baby escaped with minor cuts and bruises after being hit by a train on Wednesday when his pushchair rolled off a station platform, paramedics said. CCTV footage of the incident shows the child's grandmother watching in horror as the pram slowly rolls off the platform and flips onto the tracks as a train pulls into Melbourne's Tooronga station. 'It's just the most miraculous circumstances that he is as uninjured as he is,' said ambulance officer Kate Jessop.
Paramedics said the double-pushchair started moving after the baby's three-year-old brother climbed out when the grandmother's back was turned and that it was pushed along the track for several metres (yards). 'All she can recall is seeing the pram on the platform and then turned around and saw it on the track, so she's had an incredible fright,' Ms Jessop said. 'It would appear, amazingly, that it's nothing more than a couple of grazes and a big fright.'
It comes seven months after an almost identical incident at a station just a few suburbs away, when a six-month-old escaped with just a cut to the forehead after his pram rolled onto rail tracks and was dragged by a train at Ashburton. Melbourne operator Metro Trains said the driver in Wednesday's incident slowed as he approached the platform but could not stop in time to avoid the baby. 'We know the driver pulled up ... but it was extremely close,' a Metro Trains spokesman said. '(There were) minor injuries to the baby involved and (it was) a shocking incident for all who witnessed it.' -- AFP
