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Car comes incredibly close to hitting Anzac Day marchers in Elmore

Marchers, including children, taking part in an Anzac Day service in Victoria's north have narrowly avoided being hit by a passing car.

Footage shot by the Bendigo Advertiser shows cars passing the Anzac Day marchers as they wait to cross the Northern Highway in the town of Elmore on Tuesday morning.

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Car's near miss at Elmore ANZAC parade

Footage shot by the Bendigo Advertiser shows cars passing the Anzac Day marchers as they wait to cross the Northern Highway in the town of Elmore on Tuesday morning.

But as the three children leading the march start to cross the busy road, a sedan drives past perilously close.

The drum and pipe band had already started playing when the car came incredibly close to hitting the children at the front of the procession.

"We had three school children leading the march and it was horrifying for a minute," Elmore RSL president Jeff Crust said.

"They almost got run over . . . and I just felt responsible for it."

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Mr Crust said he expected police to be at the march, stopping traffic.

"We had actually been told that there would be a bigger police presence here than in the past," he told Fairfax Media.

"But no one [police] turned up this morning . . . [and] we just had to get on with it."

Mr Crust said he didn't know if police in the area had been diverted to a crash outside town.

"I don't know what happened.

"We're only a single-policeman town, so when he's not scheduled on, it makes it difficult. In the past few years the police officers have come from Bendigo to manage traffic [on Anzac Day]."

The RSL president said he enlisted the help of an adult to try to get motorists to slow down, ahead of the march.

"Every time we tried to stop the traffic cars just kept streaming through," he said.

"They must have been blind if they couldn't see 100 people lining up, with a pipe band. We were quite visible on that part of the Northern Highway.

"It was Anzac Day, and it was that time of day [for marches] . . . but these drivers didn't hesitate. They just don't slow down through this little town. Motorists in these little country towns just aren't considerate.

"This particular driver seemed to think he was on the Northern Highway, and it belonged to him."

Mr Crust said he would take matters into his own hands next year, if necessary.

"I will make a decision, and I will get some residents to park a car across the road, or I might even get them to park a fire engine there.

"I'll take the law into my own hands, but we will have our march and we will stop the traffic, one way or another."

The marchers were on their way to the town's Memorial Hall when the near-miss occurred.

Bendigo Advertiser, with Marissa Calligeros