Australian Mum relives horrifying moment before the big “what if”
An Australian mother has re-lived a horrifying moment where she saved her young son from a Land Rover just seconds before it plummeted into a sinkhole in Indonesia.
Margie Rule was enjoying an adventure-packed holiday with her husband Michael and their 20-month-old son Sebastian in their 4WD along a busy road in Yogyakarta when their vehicle began to tilt.
“We really didn’t realise how serious it was at the time,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
Ms. Rule was unaware a giant 10-metre long sinkhole was making its way up to the street, stunning horrified onlookers.
“When it actually happened I had no idea. Michael turned to me and said ‘Get out of the car! Grab Sebastian and get out of the car!’” she recalled.
The mother said her husband was trying to “process” what to do after he glanced out the window and began to notice their Land Rover teetering over the edge.
Responding quickly, Ms. Rule followed her husbands demands and jumped out the passenger side and flung open the rear door to pull baby Sebastian from his seat.
“In the footage you can see me take a couple of steps back and look at what it is and what’s happened and think: ‘no, no you need to get out!’”
Mr. Rule was able to get out of the vehicle by clambering over to the passenger’s side and escaping through the door.
Seconds later, the sinkhole swallowed the car.
CCTV footage recorded the family’s dramatic escape to safety.
After the family was shown the clip, they realised how severe the situation was - and how close danger was.
“We watched the footage and were like: ‘Oh my goodness, it was actually really bad and really close in time’.”
Mrs Rule said the response from local community members has been overwhelming as they brought them shoes and food - as their whole life lay before them in the ditch.