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Don't jump in front of trains to grab your phone, viral video reminds

The Internet, as a whole, has a strange obsession with videos of people doing unwise things ... especially when the catalyst for the dangerous behavior is a cellphone. Whether it's a distracted texter falling into a fountain or walking into a bear, the videos that capture these incidents go instantly viral. In the most recent video of cellphone-related danger, the star isn't even distracted. The w
YouTube
YouTube

The Internet, as a whole, has a strange obsession with videos of people doing unwise things ... especially when the catalyst for the dangerous behavior is a cellphone. Whether it's a distracted texter falling into a fountain or walking into a bear, the videos that capture these incidents go instantly viral.

In the most recent video of cellphone-related danger, the star isn't even distracted. The woman instead narrowly escapes a train after jumping onto the tracks to retrieve her dropped cellphone.

The clip hit YouTube on Thursday, quickly racking up over 400,000 views by Tuesday morning. It's shaky footage, likely recorded with a smartphone, and it shows a woman struggling to climb from the train tracks onto the platform as a train nears. She is pulled up by two men in the very last second, just barely escaping the incoming train. One of her rescuers is wearing a grey security uniform, and appears to be a security guard.

While TODAY.com's attempts to reach the Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM) to confirm that this incident happened didn't receive any replies, G1 Sao Paulo, a part of media conglomerate Organizações Globo, did receive a statement. According to the outlet, this near-miss occurred on March 26, at approximately 12:30 p.m. local time.

R8, another local news website, clarifies that the incident happened at the Corinthians-Itaquera station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and that the woman had jumped onto the tracks to retrieve her cellphone after accidentally dropping it.

This is certainly not the first time we've seen an individual endanger him or herself over a cellphone, of course. In early January, a newscaster walked directly into a canal because she was texting her boyfriend. In January 2011 a woman fell into a water fountain while walking through a mall and text messaging. In January 2012, a young man texted "I need to quit texting" right before driving into a ravine. In April 2012, a California man nearly walked directly into a bear because he was distracted by his cellphone. In August 2012, footage of an earlier incident in which a man stumbled right off a train platform while focused on his phone circulated on the Internet.

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