Advertisement

Taxi driver narrowly avoids accident after little girl runs across road

Video and words from SWNS

A Merseyside taxi driver has warned parents to 'never let their guard down' after this near collision when a child ran into the road and in front of his car.

Andrew Westmoreland, 30, was at the wheel of his white Ford Mondeo, on they way to a pickup when a young girl darted out from behind a parked black van.

He slammed on his brakes and stopped three or four feet away from the girl, who kept running.

His dashcam caught the 'scary' near-miss in Southport, on May 8.

The cabbie estimated the little girl was no older than five.

A cyclist ahead had already forced him to reduce his speed to around 17mph in the 20mph zone, but he admitted that had he not been driving so slowly, it could have been a fatal collision.

Mr Westmoreland, who has a nine-year-old daughter, said: "What's on my mind right now is what could have potentially happened and the process after that.

"That's what worries me the most about it. If it did turn out differently you would obviously have the bereavement and the criminal aspect.

"Hopefully in the future it could even stop just one child running out."

Mr Westmoreland added that he had no time to think before instinctively slamming the breaks on but said "it's really hard to judge."

"Usually if it is a pigeon or something you are not meant to do an emergency stop - you are meant to carry on.

"It was hard, especially because I had to drive back past - I wanted to go the other way. It was not a nice feeling.

"Usually in a situation like that you would stop, but I thought if I was her parent the first person I would blame is the driver of the car, even though it was not my fault.

"I wanted to avoid that confrontation."

Mr Westmoreland said there were people out celebrating VE day, at the time of the near-miss.