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Crash victim seeks kind stranger via Facebook

A Melbourne woman has used Facebook to track down a passer-by who comforted her as she waited, trapped under a car, for an ambulance to arrive.

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4 min read

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Source: SBS


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Facebook has apparently helped the victim of a motorbike accident find the random stranger who comforted her as she waited, trapped, for an ambulance to arrive.

Sophie Clair Moon created an event on the social networking site - which has over 500 million users worldwide – on the anniversary of her accident.

She sent the invite to her list of Facebook friends and those of her sisters, Lena and Kate.

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“Last year on Saturday the 12th of December, some f**king lunatic ran a red light and put me in hospital for nearly the entire summer, just after that accident happened while I was trapped underneath the car, a random passer by stopped to comfort me while we waited for the emergency services..

I am looking to buy that man a beer...,” the invite said.

Ms Moon added screen grabs from a video of the scene of her accident, which show a man in a white t-shirt with blonde hair kneeling by her as paramedics attend to her on a stretcher.

“Apparently for the half an hour that it took for them to place airbags underneath the car he lay on the asphalt and held my hand and comforted me, I can see in the video that I was given, that even once I am out from underneath it I am calling out for him again and he helps them put me in the ambulance,” she wrote on Facebook.

“So I'm putting the two degrees of separation that seem to exist in inner city Melbourne to the test, I have lifted some photos from the video and he is the dude in the white t-shirt, jeans and black cowboy boots. Though the cops took statements from everyone at the scene, they have no record of him at all,” she added.

Within 48 hours, the invite had been forwarded on to over 50,000 people, and more than 2,000 – a rapidly rising number at the time of writing– had agreed to 'attend'.

On Monday at 14:00, a Facebook user called Nicky McNamara posted that she knew the man in the photos, and that he worked with her.

“Calling you now soph (sic)!!! He would love a beer,” she added.

Within an hour, more than 100 users had clicked the 'Like' button relating to the post. Many more posts appeared, congratulating both Ms Moon and the as-yet-unnamed passer-by, who was referred to by some as The Dude.

“It's a Christmas miracle!! So happy :D,” posted a user named Kiri White.

SBS has contacted Ms Moon and is waiting to hear from her to verify the details of the story.

News that the man had been located spread quickly via Facebook and Twitter, however, Ms Moon was at work and unable to contact him, according to a post by Kate Moon on the event site.

"The mystery man has indeed been found, but not yet identified. Sophie has been stuck at work all day and unable to answer her phone, but she knows he has been found," the message said.

Ms Moon was apparently set to finish work at 18:00.

As users awaited more news, speculation abounded on whether the meeting would result in romance or perhaps even a movie deal.

"I can't believe it only took 2 hours for you to track a stranger down. Just throwing it out there... are both Sophie and 'Dude' are single? ;)," posted a user named Shazzy Lou Mullinskavitch.

"And if they do get together, surely there will be a massive bidding war for the movie rights!," answered a user named Loch Les Munster.

The story drew a plethora of comments praising the power of the Internet.

"That is so funny! It has spread to nearly 60,000 people and it was one of our friends who found him! Classic! Go Nicky!," posted a user named Alexis Tarran.


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