Video: Mother and son escape car just seconds before train smash

Kerin and Jacob Joy had been travelling to A&E for a injury he had picked up earlier in the day

The two passengers avoided death by seconds (Newsflare )

A mother and her son have been filmed escaping their car just moments before it was hit by a train on level crossing in Massachusetts.

The footage captured by motorist Tyler Campana as he waited in traffic on the John Mahar Highway in Braintree, Massachusetts, last Friday, shows the Kerin Joy and her 15-year-old son, Jacob, get out of their car and run across the road seconds before the commuter train ploughs into the vehicle.

Local news station CBS Boston reported that Joy had stopped the car to wait for the train to pass when another vehicle shunted the back of her car and pushed it onto the train tracks.

Unable to get the car moving again Kerin said she had a moment of pure paralyzed panic before her son told her to get out of the vehicle.

“I ran to the sidewalk, it maybe took me 20 seconds to get there and turnaround and the train had hit my car”

In total, it took 16 seconds from the Joys leaving the car to the train smashing into it.

The car had to be written off as a result of the collision.

It later emerged that the incident had occurred as Joy was taking her son to ER for an injury he picked up earlier in the day.

Paramedics who responded to the crash took the boy to the hospital to be evaluated.

Amazingly, no other injuries were reported.

Campana later wrote online: “At the time there were no horns and the train gate wasn't down, so we were sitting there waiting and we noticed on the other side of the tracks that a car was first in line and there was an SUV coming up pretty fast.

“The SUV rear-ended the car and pushed it right onto the tracks. Probably 30 seconds later the train gate went down and after another 15-20 seconds we heard the horn from the train.

Adding: “The conductor did an excellent job of slowing down and not hitting the car full speed. Luckily the passenger and driver got out of the car in time and no one was injured.“