A garage owner has described the “shocking” moment his CCTV captured a car rolling down a hill and on to a main road – missing oncoming traffic by seconds – saying it was “a miracle” it avoided passing traffic.
Mohammed Yousaf, 58, owner of Auto Shop car garage in Rochdale, was alerted by passers-by to an out-of-control Mercedes opposite his Milkstone Road business at about 12:50 BST on Sunday.
When Yousaf went to check the garage’s CCTV footage he said what he saw unfold was staggering.
“It was as if angels were guiding the car to come down at that time – it was a miracle it missed other cars. I was so shocked, my mouth was open as soon as I saw it,” he said.
Yousaf said that by looking at the two angles picked up by his CCTV footage he was able to see a silver Mercedes turning right on Vine Place from Milkstone Road in Rochdale.
The driver then turned into the car park, but failed to stop before driving directly down the grassy hill and bouncing off the pavement before heading back towards the main road.
The car then tumbled into the the two-way main road – narrowly missing oncoming traffic in both directions by just five seconds.
The car then drives in the wrong direction down a one-way road opposite.
The footage captured on Yousaf’s CCTV cameras showed that in the 30 seconds before the incident – five cars had driven across the point where it drove.
“We have a lot of drivers going up and down the bridge driving fast – but this type of incident hasn’t ever, ever happened before,” Yousaf said.
He added that the timing of the incident had been extremely lucky.
“It came at the right time – not just before and not after,” he said.
“It is just a miracle, it doesn’t usually happen in life.”