Dashcam Video Shows Toddler in Car Seat Being Ejected From Moving Car, Landing in the Street
A truck driver was able to stop in time, keep other drivers from hitting the wayward car seat and ensure the child was safe.
Child seats are meant to keep little ones safe in the event of a crash. They're supposed to stay snugly fastened inside a car, but apparently, one was even sturdy enough to keep a little girl from getting injured when her seat fell right out of the car.
Truck driver Chad “Cheddar” Mock got the worst surprise waiting for him at the exit of a curve on Minnesota Road in Mankato, Minnesota, the Washington Post reports. There was a two-year-old little girl still strapped into her car seat, sitting in the middle of the busy street. She had fallen right out of the rear door of her mother's car, which had flopped open in the turn.
Mock stopped his truck immediately, waved for traffic to stop, and made sure the child was safe. The whole incident was captured on Mock's dashcam and happened around noon on Monday.
"If it didn't happen in front of me, I'd never have believed it,” Mock wrote on Facebook. “The child was OK. The parents came back. Paramedics and police checked the child out as well."
The mother in the silver car ahead of Mock's truck stopped and turned around as soon as she noticed her daughter had fallen out. Officers and paramedics soon arrived on the scene and confirmed that the child sustained no injuries in the fall. Three cheers for modern child seat tech!
A statement by the City of Mankato confirmed that the child was securely belted into her seat, but that the safety seat itself and the car door weren't properly secured. They have requested that charges of child endangerment as well as not properly restraining a child inside a vehicle be brought against the parent.
The mother's name and an explanation of why the child wasn't securely fastened in her car were not released at this time, per the Washington Post. Either way, this is a good reminder to make sure to check that not only your child is safely buckled in, but the seat itself is securely fastened into the car.
