A six-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after he snuck into his grandmother's car which then rolled across a busy road and over a 10m cliff at Austinmer yesterday.
Kyus Gamome escaped serious injury when he was thrown from the vehicle moments before it plunged to the beach below.
"He could have died - he could be dead," his shocked grandmother, Mary Boers, said.
AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Boy's lucky escapeWitnesses told police Kyus was in the driver's seat of the Lexus 4WD and was operating the steering wheel when it rolled down Kennedy Rd, across Lawrence Hargrave Dr and through Slade Park.
The vehicle crashed through five panels of metal fencing and thick scrub lining the top of the cliff before it flew over the edge.
It was not clear how Kyus was ejected from the vehicle, landing in bushes.
Miraculously, he received only minor cuts and abrasions and was taken by ambulance to Wollongong Hospital, where he remained overnight for observation.
Mrs Boers told the Mercury she had previously warned her grandson not to play with the car's gears.
Her daughter, Kyus' mum Janna Gamome, had borrowed the vehicle to take Kyus to school about 9.30am.
On the way, she stopped at her brother Nick Boers' place and parked the car in front of his Kennedy Rd unit.
Mrs Gamome took Kyus inside but when she went to leave she could not find him.
"She thought he was hiding in the flat somewhere because he didn't want to go to school," Mrs Boers said.
"But he'd snuck outside and went straight to the car because that's what I'd told him not to do.
"He jumped in the driver's side and put it in neutral.
"(When my daughter) realised he'd jumped in ... she nearly got killed running over the road screaming."
Elizabeth Kingston, whose house overlooks the cliff, was getting ready to go to the Kembla Grange races when she saw the incident from her kitchen window.
"It was almost as if the car was in the air - it must have really been travelling because it hit (the fence) and looked as if it was in the air and then just went (over the cliff)," Mrs Kingston said.
"It all happened in a matter of seconds."
Mrs Kingston called triple-0 and rushed to the scene.
"There were lots of people there ... they sat (Kyus) on our little step. His arm was bleeding, I heard him say 'What happened, I don't know where I am'," she said.
Mrs Kingston has lived next to the cliff for 20 years and hasn't seen anything like yesterday's incident.
Acting Inspector Paul Allman of Wollongong police said it was lucky there were no other cars on Lawrence Hargrave Dr and no pedestrians on the footpath or in the park when the accident happened.
Police are still investigating how Kyus operated the vehicle and how he was ejected.
"The message to parents is to make sure the vehicle is secured and parked properly," Insp Allman said.
Email a friend