Wow, that's scary... I wonder what the passengers in each aircraft thought/felt? So who's at fault? Clearance was given for takeoff, so I'm guessing the taxiing aircraft?
I think most of the pax knows nothing about it while they are onboard..
unless the crew announced the situation over the intercom, and scared them out
And I guess.. it is also an airmanship thing, and scan the runway for any traffic , even though the ATC cleared the taxi. However.. we don't know if the visibility is good though when the incident occurs for the crew to be aware of the situation.