Arizona driver runs red light, narrowly misses couple with a stroller
Jeep runs a red light and narrowly misses couple with a stroller.
The Arizona driver hailed as an “angel” for saving the lives of a couple pushing a stroller through a crosswalk by smashing into a suspected drunk driver that was speeding toward the family has been gifted a new car.
Shannon Vivar suffered non-life threatening injuries when her Chevy Cruz collided with a Jeep that had run a red light in a busy Phoenix intersection on the night of Oct. 14, police said last week when they released stunning video of the close call.
"It just happened so quickly, I think it was all meant to happen that way," Vivar, whose mother and 3-year-old son were also in the car, told FOX10 Phoenix on Wednesday. "Something was telling me to just hold on a little bit, you know?"
The footage shows a couple pushing a stroller through a crosswalk at a red light. A Jeep then runs the light and comes barreling through the intersection, freezing the family in place. At the same time, a Chevy Cruz driven by Vivar enters the intersection and slams into the side of the Jeep just feet before it's set to strike the family.
Police arrested the Jeep’s 23-year-old driver, Ernesto Oveso, after a brief chase but a female passenger managed to evade capture.
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"I don't want to label myself a hero,” Vivar told KNXV-TV. “But I just see that maybe that's just how things were supposed to be."
However, executives with used car retailer Carvana didn’t hesitate to call Vivar a hero and presented her with a 2018 Chevy Cruz to replace the one damaged in the crash.
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"When we heard about this, we recognized her as a community hero and when you watch the video it's so compelling we wanted to reach out to this woman and thank her for this remarkable action," Teresa Aragon, Director of Customer Operations at Carvana, told FOX10.
The company also reportedly gave the family a new car seat and tickets to Disneyland.
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"I've been having a hard time coping with everything and this makes me feel really good," Vivar said told the station.
