If these girls did not have the awareness to look both ways before continuing, it would have been a different story.

If you need another reason to remind your kids (and yourself) to look both ways before crossing the street, this dash cam video from Poland is a good one.

Dash cam footage from Smogorzów, Poland submitted by Reddit user Muxzachan on the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit shows the horrifying moment an inattentive driver swerves out of the way, avoiding and narrowly missing a pair of pedestrians on bikes by inches.

Check out the video for yourself below.

Here’s a link to the overhead shot of the incident on Google Maps and here are screenshots of the location.

For those not familiar with Poland, DK73 stands for Droga Krajowa or National Road 73. Odd numbers show roads going North to South.

Speed limits approaching the unguarded crosswalk show 70 KMH or about 43 MPH, a speed slow enough to stop in time for pedestrians waiting to cross.

The dash cam video shows the dash cam owner’s car properly stopping to let two pedestrians on bikes cross. Unbeknownst to him, there’s another car, a brown sedan, following behind him, unaware that he stopped.

The sedan first swerves left to avoid the dash cam owner’s car, then jukes right in the nick of time to avoid hitting the crossing pedestrians.

To the pedestrians credit, probably upon hearing an approaching car, theylook right and also stop in time, letting the brown sedan blow by them.

They miss hitting each other by inches.

Redditor ShingDao, a Polish resident who, at one point, lived close to Smogorzów comments,

These types of roads (DK73) are typically the main arteries through small towns and villages like this one in south- eastern Poland where it is sadly common to see this sort of driving.”

These girls are local residents and used to being careful at this crossing as they are likely on their way to school across the road.

There are usually traffic police stationed not far away from these crossings on school days so I wouldn’t be surprised if this car was pulled over just down the road a bit.

Pedestrian safety is a big problem in Poland.

According to Notes From Poland,

Poland still has one of the highest mortality rates for pedestrians in Europe.”

Recent Polish legislation put into law this year now makes it a requirement for cars, trucks, buses etc (except trams) to stop for waiting pedestrians.

Previously, drivers were only required to stop once pedestrians already started to cross.

As drivers, we have the responsibility to pay attention and aware 100 percent of the time.

And as pedestrians we must know the hard truth,all drivers are not perfect and make mistakes. It’s why looking both ways before crossing is a must.

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