Heart-stopping moment child runs into path of car: 'Chilling to watch'
Chilling dashcam footage shows how a Melbourne driver's split-second decision potentially saved the life of a child that ran out onto the road.
Video footage shared on Reddit on Wednesday shows how close the driver came to hitting the young pedestrian while travelling along a three-lane road.
"Just happened on the way home from work. Close call," the anonymous poster wrote alongside the video. "The full-res version I’ve got shows really clearly how close she was to becoming a statistic," they added.
The nine-second video was taken from inside the vehicle which was travelling at around 68 km/ph on an unidentified Melbourne road. Suddenly, an adult and two children appear in the vision, standing in the far left lane waiting to cross the street.
As the car approaches, one child runs across the road, into the middle lane where the car was driving. Instinctively, the driver swiftly moves to the right-hand lane, to avoid a collision. In the moment the driver can be heard saying "oh sh*t" repeatedly, stunned by the close call.
Driver praised for quick reaction
People who watched the video pointed out just how bad things could have been if the driver didn't think to move over to the right lane.
"Luckily there was no one to OP's right. Bunch of ways this could have ended differently," one said. Another said so many lives could have been ruined in less than a second. "Good awareness on your part," another said, praising the driver.
Others dubbed the footage "chilling" with some admitting it was hard to watch.
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"Was chilling to watch just on my screen... must have been shocking watching from behind the wheel," one said. "That's way too close for comfort," said another.
Some said this incident was an important message about road safety, and warned against trying to cross a busy road with children. "Kids have tunnel vision and don't get concepts of speed of cars in the same way as adults," one said. Another said this is "exactly why kids should be taught to use the pedestrian crossing and not to run across a three-lane road."
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