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Conductor stops on a dime when woman falls on tracks

Talk about a close call!

An apparently blind-drunk Boston woman was nearly killed after she stumbled onto a train track — but a quick-thinking conductor was able to pull to a stop with just inches to spare.

MBTA Orange Line operator Charice Lewis was hailed as a hero yesterday after she spotted fellow passengers frantically flailing their arms on the platform of the North Station Friday night, the Boston Globe reported today.

Dramatic surveillance video shows the woman stamp out a cigarette, stumble and then topple onto the tracks below, where the train nearly crushed her as it pulled into the station.

“It was so close, I thought it was not good,’’ Lewis, a 27-year-old train operator, told the paper. The woman was not harmed, but she told police she had been drinking for several hours before the near-miss.

Lewis and a MBTA employee who called her from the platform, Jacqueline Osorio, have been called heroes. Both were recognized by state Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan on Monday and received a call of congratulations from Gov. Deval Patrick.