A woman narrowly escaped a horror pedicab crash which killed her friend in Southwark on Sunday morning.
The rickshaw, carrying two women from central London, had stopped in a bus lane outside the Tesco Express on New Kent Road so one of the passengers could use the cash machine.
Seconds after the woman stepped away, the pedicab was struck by a silver car. The passenger, a woman aged in her 30, was killed and the driver injured.
The woman, in her 20s, who stepped out to go to the cash machine was not injured.
CCTV shows her running over to the wreckage of the pedicab to try and get to her friend.
Police were called at 4.10am to reports of a car having crashed with the pedal-powered vehicle.
A supermarket worker told The Standard: “There were two friends in the back of the rickshaw. One girl got out of the back to get money out. Maybe to get cash for the driver.
“It looked like the woman got out just in time and lived but her friend was killed. It’s so sad.”
Grant Wadey, who has lived above the Tesco Express for five years, called for more road safety measures to prevent further deaths in New Kent Road.
He told The Standard: “I heard the screams they woke me up.
“I came to the street and there were lots of people bunched around and paramedics were here.
“It’s so sad that a young lady lost her life. Now it’s time the council did something.
“Drivers come too fast out of here they see a straight road and go for it.”
A 33-year-old pedestrian was killed on the same stretch of road in November.
Police arrested the driver of the car on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and driving under the influence of alcohol.
The pedicab driver, a man in his 30s, was treated in hospital after suffering a suspected broken arm.
Scotland Yard said there were no reports of any injuries to the other passenger.
A small bunch of flowers was left on the road on Monday morning.
Luis Fernanado Balcazr-Soto, 24, of Law Street, Southwark, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today facing a number of charges over the incident in the early hours of Sunday.
Balcazr-Soto is accused of causing death by dangerous driving; causing serious injury by dangerous driving; causing death by driving a vehicle whilst unlicensed; causing death by driving a vehicle whilst uninsured; and breach of a restraining order.
