A terrifying near miss has left a Marton woman shaken, after she narrowly avoided hitting a car which abruptly pulled out in front of her on a rural road.
It was all captured on dash camera footage and the woman, who asked to only be identified as Nikki, didn't realise how serious it was until watching the video later.
She was driving along State Highway 3 towards Whanganui, near Kaitoke, at the time.
In the video Nikki can be seen frantically braking with as blue car in front pulls out to turn, pulling to the left before losing control and spinning across into the oncoming lane.
She makes it back into her lane and comes to a stop, facing the opposite direction to where she started. Her baby daughter, Emily, can be heard crying in the background.
The blue car is nowhere to be seen, having continued on its way.
"I was very surprised nobody stopped. I was quite shaken, but happy there was no damage and no one was hurt," Nikki told Newshub.
"Once I came to a stop I put my hazards on and tried to get off the road as fast as possible... I am very thankful there were no oncoming cars."
She says everything felt as though it was in slow motion at the time.
"I was braking very hard and the tyres let go on the rumble strips I think. I took my foot off the brake to try and get control back, but once I started going sideways figured it would be best to get my speed down as fast as possible."
Both Nikki and her husband Bruce were glad five-month-old Emily was safely secured in her carseat during the horrifying ordeal, meaning although the baby was shaken and crying, she was uninjured.
"Always have your children restrained in suitable carseats! It was a huge comfort while spinning out to know Emily was safe," Nikki said.
Bruce is now planning to report the incident to police.
"[Nikki] had convinced herself that she had overreacted, and it wasn't until she got home and we reviewed the footage that I realised how serious the situation was and that it was a matter for the police," he told Newshub.
Newshub.
