Photo by T.D. Ford

This is only really somewhat amusing because no one was hurt, but the potential for a more serious accident was quite high. WTOP reports that a confused French tourist tried to get from one side of a Red Line station to the other by walking across the tracks at Metro Center yesterday:

The woman, dressed in black and carrying a red bag, appeared to try to cross over both sets of Red Line tracks between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night before stopping on the center barrier. She appeared “lost, almost confused,” says Jen Voss, who tweeted a picture of the incident.

Metro reports the 37-year-old woman is French, does not speak English and was trying to cross from the Shady Grove side to the Glenmont side of the tracks.

“If you can believe it, it seemed like an honest mistake,” Voss tells WTOP in an email.

Metro officials were forced to stop trains and shut off electricity to the third rail that powers them before rescuing her from the station’s median. She wasn’t charged with anything for her bold, if ill-advised shortcut.