The shocking moment a toddler in diapers stepped into the path of oncoming traffic at a busy Arizona intersection was caught on camera.
Terrifying dash cam footage showed the young man limping onto the freeway near 96th Street and University Drive in Mesa before dawn Friday.
A woman filming burst into screams as the toddler entered the road and a pickup truck swerved to narrowly avoid hitting them.
“When you watch the video, I’m completely hysterical because I feel desperate,” the host said. Arizona Family.
“I felt like I was mentally preparing myself to see a child get crushed,” he added.
A little boy wearing only a diaper was filmed wandering into the path of oncoming traffic at a busy Arizona intersection.
A horrified woman in a nearby car howled in fear. The vehicles pounced on the boy.
The driver said her seven-year-old son was in the back seat at the time, so she couldn’t leave her vehicle in the middle of the road to jump out and help.
She could only watch helplessly and honk at the boy in hopes of scaring him onto the sidewalk.
The video shows her screaming and honking before the boy looks in her direction and stops, as cars suddenly swerve and miss him by just inches.
As the boy barely avoids death, a female pedestrian can be seen running after him before picking him up and carrying him to the sidewalk.
It is unclear if the pedestrian is a bystander or the child’s mother.
“I feel overwhelmed, but just happy that the kind woman was willing to sacrifice her life to get out on the road and grab him,” the motorist who filmed the ordeal told Arizona Family.
The newspaper also spoke with the boy’s father, who said he was not home at the time of the incident.
He said his wife had been watching their children that day (the two-year-old and the nine-month-old) but left the house momentarily.
The stunned father said he only knew they had left the house when he received a Ring camera notification showing a woman holding her son.
The woman filming bursts into howls as the toddler walks onto the road and a pickup truck swerves to narrowly avoid hitting them.
He added that his wife has been suffering from postpartum depression and forgot to close the door.
“We don’t understand the full extent of her struggles, but as a community, we should extend grace and approach her situation with compassion, but still hold her fully accountable,” said the woman who captured the incident on her dash cam.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said they are considering filing endangerment charges. The investigation is ongoing.