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PHOENIX (AP) — A couple and their baby narrowly escaped injury after a speeding car headed directly for them was accidentally knocked out of its path by another driver seconds before it would have slammed into the family, a video showed.
Traffic video released Wednesday by Phoenix police shows a car driven by Shannon Vivar making a right turn and unintentionally hitting the speeding vehicle out of the family's way as they crossed the street. Vivar's mother, Shirley, and her 3-year-old son were in the car with her.
"I yelled, 'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Shannon!' And then we collided," Shirley Vivar said. "It was the wrong time at the wrong place, but then the right time at the right place. We're all blessed that we're all alive."
The couple and their child, who were headed for a grocery store after getting off a bus, weren't hurt.
"In this case, when you look at the video, it's nothing short of a miracle that the family the (Jeep) Renegade was barreling toward didn't get struck," said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a police spokesman. "They could have suffered injuries that were certainly serious if not life threatening."
Vivar suffered minor injuries in the crash.
"I kind of think it was meant to happen," Vivar, 27, said at a news conference Thursday.
Police said Ernesto Otanez Oveso, 28, was driving impaired when he ran that red light in the late-night hours of Oct. 14 and then drove off after the crash with Vivar's vehicle.
Police say he later pulled a knife on another driver who witnessed the crash and followed Oveso from the scene.
Police said Oveso remains jailed on suspicion of leaving the scene of a collision and aggravated assault along with a weapons violation, a felony warrant in a probation violation and three misdemeanor warrants.
A handgun was later found in Oveso's vehicle and he's prohibited from possessing a firearm, according to police, who didn't immediately know if Oveso had a lawyer yet.
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