A hero mother died as she threw herself in front of an out-of-control car to save her two-year-old son and husband, it is reported.
Tragic Anastasia Lyakhanova, 26, was walking with her family to take her son to nursery school in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region.
Their only route was on the side of a busy road, where a 67-year-old man lost control of his Hyundai car overtaking in heavy snow and careered towards the family.
Eyewitnesses say Anastasia saw the oncoming vehicle and dived in front of her husband Dmitry and child to take the full force of the impact.
Dmitry was seen crying over Anastasia's body after she died at the scene. The driver could be jailed for five years if convicted.
“She took the brunt of the blow and covered her husband and child with her body,” reported Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
After her selfless act, she died on the spot, said reports following last Friday's tragedy.
Her husband and son were reported as “safe” following the crash near the border of the Balakhninsky and Sormovsky districts.
They were not seriously wounded after she cushioned the blow from the skidding car.
Witnesses saw the husband “crying over her body at the scene”.
Footage posted online shows a man hovering over Anastasia's body as passersby stopped to help.
Regional traffic police say the collision occurred last Friday morning near the village of Bolshoye Kozino.
The driver of the Hyundai was overtaking and did not see the family walking along the side of the tree-lined road towards the village of Dubravny, it is reported.
Police say the unnamed driver is facing a charge of negligence causing death.
The driver, from Bolshoye Kozino, faces up to five years jail if convicted.
A criminal investigation is underway.
It comes as official figures show an alarming number of crashes in the region, east of Moscow.
Crashes with fatalities or serious injuries appear almost daily in traffic police reports, Komsomolskaya Pravda said.
