Heart-stopping moment two-year-old boy is hit by a car and two wheels go over him – but he somehow survives with just scratches and a broken tooth
- Footage shows the car slamming into two-year-old Theo dos Reis Santos
- The toddler was thrown under the car’s wheels but escaped with minor injuries
- A paediatrician said a child’s malleable bones could have cushioned the impact
A toddler was hit by a car in a horrifying accident in Brazil – but escaped alive without even breaking a bone.
A CCTV camera caught the moment that two-year-old Theo dos Reis Santos stepped obliviously in front of the car while his mother looked on in horror.
The toddler was flung to the tarmac and under the wheels of the car, which could not stop in time to avoid running him over.
But astonishingly, Theo not only survived but escaped any serious injuries – coming off with only scratches, a broken tooth and a cut on the back of his neck.
The footage taken in Araguari on June 24 showed how the accident unfolded after the toddler’s grandmother had initially walked him across the road.
Theo’s grandmother left him with his mother, who was standing at the door of a parked car.
Suddenly, Theo decided to run back across the road – slipping away from his mother who was obstructed by the car door and could not reach him in time.
As the boy ran over the road, a white car appeared at the worst possible moment and could not possibly stop in time.
After Theo was knocked down, his horrified mother picked him up from the road and took him to the pavement while others went to help her and the car came to a stop.
The boy was taken to hospital, but spent only a day in the city’s emergency care unit before he was discharged.
Escape: Two-year-old Theo dos Reis Santos slipped away from his mother, who was obstructed by the car door and could not reach him in time
Collision: A white car appeared just as Theo was crossing the road and knocked him down
An X-ray showed no broken bones, and soon afterwards Theo was happily jumping and playing on a mattress with his sister again.
Paediatrician Ana Escobar told Globo’s news programme Fantastico that the child’s undeveloped bones had come to his rescue.
‘The fact that Theo is still a child and his bones are not completely formed helped his body cushion the impact without suffering more serious injuries,’ she said.
‘Children’s bones are more malleable, they have a different composition, they are more elastic.
‘That is why, when the car passed over him with that speed, this malleability and elasticity allowed him to be fine without breaking any bones.’
Nightmare: Theo was thrown beneath the wheels of the car, which could not have stopped in time to avoid him
Escape: The mother picked up her child after he was knocked over – and miraculously, he escaped not only alive but with only minor injures
Relief: Soon after being discharged from hospital, Theo was happily jumping and playing on a mattress with his sister again