[OnyxCougar]

Passengers in Near-Miss with Train on Track
Mon Sep 22, 9:57 AM ET

PARIS (Reuters) - French state rail operator SNCF said Monday it was launching an investigation into how passengers walking on a railway track after their train broke down narrowly missed being run over by another train.

The near-miss occurred near the town of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, south-east of Paris, Saturday evening after a train carrying an estimated 100 passengers broke down a short distance from a station.

Travelers were told to disembark on the left-hand side of the train and return to the station by foot, said Philippe Baudelocque, who filmed the scene with a video camera.

Finding the doors locked, they exited on the opposite side and began walking along the track, he said. The images show the crowd scattering into a ditch as a train passes among them at a solid speed, missing some onlookers by only a few feet.

"I started to walk, then I saw the train coming straight ahead," Baudelocque told LCI television.

SNCF President Louis Gallois said in a statement he was shocked and worried by the incident and had asked for an in-depth internal investigation.

Why do they call it a near-miss? It missed them. Shouldn't it be called a near-hit?