st clair accident today

Toronto woman praised as hero for throwing herself in front of car to save children

A woman in her 30s who was taking care of two children sustained life-threatening injuries after putting herself in harm's way to save them this week when a car veered off a main street and onto the adjacent sidewalk in Toronto.

During the incident, which took place early Wednesday near St. Clair and Dufferin, an SUV mounted a curb in the Corso Italia neighbourhood and headed straight toward the caregiver, who was pushing a two-year-old and a five-year-old in a stroller.

She was pinned under the vehicle, while the kids were only minorly scathed. Bystanders attended to the trio until emergency crews arrived to transport them to hospital and close the street for an investigation.

The 82-year-old driver was apparently trying to parallel park at the time and lost control of the car, which knocked over a Green P parking metre and hit the pedestrians before crashing into a storefront, STATE hair salon.

Toronto police have rightfully hailed the woman as a hero for risking her own life to save those of the little ones under her care.

"When officers arrived on scene the stroller was actually partially pinned between the vehicle and the wall, which is unbelievably lucky and everyone here is thankful that she actually took the actions that she did," authorities on the scene told CTV.

Her condition at the time of publication is unknown.

Lead photo by

@Douglas680NEWS


Latest Videos



Latest Videos


Join the conversation Load comments

Latest in City

Here's a preview of what it will be like to ride on new Toronto LRT line

There's a brand-new $26M TTC subway station entrance in a popular Toronto park

Ontario's largest snake grows up to 2 metres and squeezes prey to death

Ontario is home to world's oldest pool of water at a staggering 2 billion years old

Stunning new Toronto park set to open next year

Toronto somehow isn't home to Ontario's jankiest LRT

A Toronto transit project is actually going to finish early for once

People worried about Ontario police's plan to use facial recognition software