Hero Dad Would Do It "Again and Again and Again"
Andrew Leitch says he was just walking along with his parents, carrying his four-month old son and minding his own business, when he looked up and saw a car speeding their way.
That's when the Australian man quickly turned his back at the last instant to shield his son with his body and bear the brunt of the impact when the car hit them. He clutched the infant tightly as the baby's stroller went flying and the car rammed into a shop's window.
Miraculously, little Hayden Leitch escaped unscathed, and Andrew only suffered a broken leg. Leitch's parents, he said in an"Early Show" telephone interview from Sydney Friday, were seriously hurt but are doing very well now.
The 2008 accident, in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith, was caught on surveillance video that just surfaced and was aired Monday on Australia's Nine Network..
Nine reported that the car was driven by an elderly woman who lost control of the vehicle.
As it bore down, Leitch told Nine, he thought, "If they hit the back of me, break a leg or whatever, that's fixable. But if they hit my son, he's not fixable."
He told Harry Smith Monday, "It was just like the old football days, you know. You've got the football -- and I was just protecting the football!
"I'm amazed we're still here today," Leitch reflected. "I'm grateful that, yeah, at the end of the day, that the little bloke … it was more or less if it didn't hit me, it was gonna hit him. So, yeah, just being a father, I'd do it again and again and again."
Watch the Smith interview and see the incident: