Passengers alert 'T' driver that woman was on track

BOSTON - A woman fell on to the Orange Line tracks at North Station Friday night, but she escaped unharmed after several passengers came to her rescue.

Several people managed to get the operator's attention as the train came into North Station. The driver hit the emergency brake in time and stopped the train right over the woman's body.

"The train came right over her body, and it stopped midway up her body. And when you looked back, it seemed like it could have ended very wrong," said Cynthia White, a passenger who witnessed the incident.

White, and others standing by, pulled out the woman, who walked away with police unharmed.

"To see this driver stop, it was amazing to see. To see this woman get up was also quite amazing because really for that quick 30 seconds of heavy emotion, you wouldn't have thought that would have been the end of it," said White.

White said when the operator got off the train, everyone in the station gave her a standing ovation.

"So i just threw it into emergency, exactly what I'm supposed to do, and it stopped just in time not to hurt her," said Charlice Lewis, the operator who stopped the train.

Lewis was honored by the MBTA Board of Directors Monday afternoon.

(Copyright (c) 2009 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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