Up-and-coming Aussie artist Visaya Hoffie has survived a horror train accident

An Australian artist has miraculously survived a freak accident in New York after she tripped and fell on to the tracks and was run over by a locomotive and all seven of its carriages.

AN UP-AND-COMING young Australian artist has miraculously survived a freak accident on the New York subway after she tripped and fell on to the tracks and was run over by a locomotive and all seven of its carriages.

Visaya Hoffie, 23, of Brisbane sustained critical injuries and had both lower legs amputated, but her mother Pat Hoffie revealed she was only alive because a second train driver spotted her hot pink shirt as she lay injured on the subway tracks.

“It’s a miracle she survived,” Pat Hoffie, who has kept vigil by her daughter’s side, said.

A New York Port Authority spokesman confirmed Visaya was struck about 4am on January 11 at the 14th St station and suffered head and lower body injuries.

“It’s difficult at the moment,” Ms Hoffie said from her daughter’s New York hospital bedside.

“We are in the best possible medical home but we just have to put our heads together and work through it.

“We’re in the middle of a very trying time.”

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In two emotional posts on social media, Visaya’s mother shared details of her daughter’s injuries and posted a photo of her “taken hours before the accident” in a distinctive tie-dye top. “The bright pink colour of her top is what alerted the driver of the second train to the fact that someone was lying across the track,” Ms Hoffie wrote on Facebook. “In the words of the investigating police, ‘it’s a miracle she survived.’ ”

Visaya suffered head and spinal wounds and other injuries and remains in a serious condition in ICU.

She overcame her most significant surgery on Wednesday — a corrective amputation of her left leg — and yesterday posted on her Instagram account with: “Yes, I’m Becoming a TV show”.