I'm lucky to be alive: The female commuter shoved onto rail line after she told two thugs to stop smoking



Shaken: Linda Buchanan broke her wrist after being pushed on the track

All she did was what any good citizen might do - ask two young men on a railway platform to stop smoking.

But commuter Linda Buchanan almost paid with her life when the thugs shoved her onto the tracks.

As fellow passengers stared in horror, Mrs Buchanan, a management consultant, landed just inches from a 750-volt live rail, snapping her left wrist and leaving her perilously close to being run over by a train.

Last night, the badly shaken mother-of-three told how she felt lucky to be alive.

The shocking incident at Farningham Road Station, near Swanley in Kent, again highlights what ordinary people risk by confronting thugs.

Last month, London Mayor Boris Johnson warned people to walk on by rather than get involved in trouble.



And in January, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was criticised after admitting she would not feel safe walking the streets after dark.

Yesterday, as she did every morning, Mrs Buchanan, 58, joined fellow commuters waiting for the 7.12am train to London Victoria.

But as she passed the two men, they threw her on to the tracks. Police said Mrs Buchanan had initially ticked off the pair on Monday for breaking the smoking ban.

It is unclear if she reprimanded them again or whether they had harboured a grudge for two days.

Divorced Mrs Buchanan looked shattered as she wept and recalled the horror of the assault last night.

Morning train: The platform at Farningham Road

Speaking on the doorstep of her £300,000 home near Dartford, Kent, she said: 'I feel lucky to be alive. It could have been a lot worse than it is and I'm shocked by the whole experience.'

A witness to the attack said: 'There were quite a few people on the platform waiting for the train when it happened.



'A scuffle broke out and she was shoved onto the tracks. There were definitely broken bones but she was more in shock than anything. Once she was on the platform, we couldn't move her, she was in such a state.'

Detective Inspector Bob Richardson said: 'It would appear the woman had spoken to the men about smoking earlier this week.



'This morning when she was at the station, she was walking past the same men when one pushed her and she fell onto the track.

Inches from death: Miss Buchanan landed beside the 750-volt live rail which would have killed her and emerged with just bruising and a fractured wrist



'The woman was very lucky she was not more seriously injured. The third rail carries 750 volts of electricity and she could have been electrocuted or even struck by an early morning train.'

Quick-thinking staff switched off the power to the line and a train a few hundred yards up the track was halted while rescuers jumped down to help Mrs Buchanan.

An off-duty policeman chased the two youths and police scrambled a helicopter but last night they were still on the run.

Friends said Mrs Buchanan, who lives alone, was a woman unafraid to intervene if she thought something was wrong.



Neighbour Jenny Davies, 60, said: 'Linda is a very principled person who is not afraid to speak her mind. If she thinks someone is amiss she will say so. She is very lucky to have lived through what happened and it might make her think twice in before saying something.'



Another neighbour, Richard Teare, revealed that on Tuesday there had been a near-confrontation with two people - possibly the same pair - smoking on the same platform.

He said: 'I was waiting on the platform with Linda and there were a couple who were smoking. I stared the guy down until he put out his cigarette but Linda was on the verge of saying something.'

One of the yobs was described as white, in his mid 20s, 6ft tall, and of stocky build with short-cropped brown hair and wearing beige shorts, a green T-shirt and trainers. His accomplice was also white, in his early 20s, of medium build, and was wearing bright red shorts and a dark top.

A spokesman for rail operator Southeastern said: 'We are appalled by this incident and hope the perpetrators are quickly identified.' Mrs Buchanan is a senior managing consultant at DBM plc, a U.S-owned company with offices around the world.

In May last year, 22-year-old Kevin Johnson, a father-of-one, was stabbed to death outside his home in Sunderland by yobs he had asked to keep the noise down.

Then in August father-of-three Garry Newlove, 47, was punched and kicked to death after confronting a gang of drunken thugs vandalising his wife's car in Warrington, Cheshire.

Last month ,former soldier Stan Dixon, 60, was attacked after asking a group of youths to stop swearing in front of a woman on a bus in Horden, County Durham.

And 16-year-old Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death after he tried to break up an argument outside a North London bar.