Dramatic video footage has emerged of a father saving his infant son by clutching steadfastly to him as a car strikes the man.

The traffic accident happened in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith in 2008 and was broadcast for the first time recently on Australia's Nine Network.

The security camera footage shows a car plowing into Andrew Leitch as he held his son Hayden on a sidewalk near a shop front. Leitch's parents, standing nearby, were hit, and the baby's empty stroller was knocked flying.

Leach held the baby to his chest as he was pushed into the shop window and had his legs pinned by the car, which Nine said was driven by an elderly woman who had lost control of the vehicle.

As the car bore down, Leitch said 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."

Leitch told the program his son was unhurt.

Leitch himself was shown climbing out from between the car and the shop front and was not badly hurt. Both his parents were hospitalized with injuries, but survived, Nine reported.

Two of the obligations parents have in life are providing for and protecting their child. Since the days of cave dwelling, this has been the natural rule, even if protecting that child puts your own life in jeopardy.

Every beast and fowl in nature abides by this principal as well, and will fight to the death, if necessary, to ensure that their young can continue on. This behavior is not only instinctual but is naturally expected.

So, it's really no great surprise that this Australian father immediately picked his infant up from a stroller that was about to get run over by a car, and shielded his child with his own body. He didn't have to think about it, he just reacted in a typical parental way. His baby's life became more important than his own.

When you think about how we all survived into adulthood, it's generally because of our parents' love and devotion to us that helped us get there. Everything else was purely consequential or just sheer luck.

If you're at all familiar with a very popular children's series about a boy wizard who discovers that the sole reason why he was not killed by a powerful dark lord was because his mother shielded the fatal spell with her body, and the evil warlock's hex could not penetrate beyond her love. Throughout his community he becomes known as "the boy who lived."

To see footage of this dramatic video, you can pretty much go anywhere online, but I found a really good version of it at The Huffington Post, http:// www.huffingtonpost.com

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