(KTLA) – Heart-stopping video has captured the moment a puppy leapt out of a moving vehicle on a busy Los Angeles freeway — and miraculously survived.
The frightening incident took place on the 101, near the Topanga exit in Woodland Hills.
“I heard her scream and then she started tumbling down the road,” recalls Lilah Cramer, whose family had been fostering the 6-month-old puppy — named Sophie — for the last few weeks.
Video from the Cramer family’s Tesla showed Sophie sticking her head out of the car on a recent afternoon, while Ryan Cramer was driving his kids home from school. Then, she suddenly jumps from the window, hitting the ground and tumbling toward oncoming freeway traffic.
A large semi-truck narrowly misses running Sophie over as she miraculously gets up and runs off to the freeway shoulder for safety.
Moments after Sophie leaps out, video shows Ryan Cramer pulling over onto the shoulder and running with his kids to find Sophie, all while fearing the worst.
“I jump out of the car and you could hear the traffic and the other things occurring,” said Ryan Cramer. “That’s something that the video doesn’t show and it was very scary.”
Miraculously, the puppy survived the terrifying ordeal, and the Cramer family rushed her to a veterinarian’s office for treatment.
The vet was shocked that Sophie suffered only a fractured hip and some scrapes, let alone survived the ordeal. About two weeks after the fall, Sophie was even able to walk again, her family said.
“It’s like what we thought, it’s a miracle,” said Ryan tearfully. “Without seeing that, it’s hard to really understand what she went through.”
“The doctor said that it would take like eight weeks for her to recover and she’s already doing, like, really good,” added Dylan Cramer.
The family hopes that by sharing the video of Sophie’s fall, it will remind dog owners of the importance of pet passenger safety.
“Fortunately, we had other drivers that were aware and not on their phone and they were able to stop and help,” said Ryan. “And it was just really awesome that we’re all here.”