A Boston train driver has been hailed a hero after pulling the emergency brakes to avoid running over a drunk woman on the tracks.

CCTV shows the woman, 26, stumbling on the platform before she plunges off the edge and into the path of an oncoming train.

The woman is seen rolling around on the tracks, apparently unable to stand, before lying flat on her back and seemingly passing out.

As the train approaches, other passengers on the platform frantically attempt to wave it to a halt.

Luckily, train driver Charice Lewis, 27, pulls the emergency brakes and the train is seen stopping inches away from the woman, who suddenly appears to wake up and starts waving her legs.

Ms Lewis later received an award from Boston transportation officials and a phone call from the governor.

"I’m like, Oh my God you really scared me. It was so close I thought it was not good," she told reporters afterwards.

Climbing out unscathed from underneath the train, the passenger was seen taking two attempts to get up, eventually receiving help from passengers on the platform who hauled her back onto the platform.

As well as escaping being hit, the woman narrowly avoided being electrocuted by the live third rail of the tracks. The 26-year-old escaped with only scraped knees.

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