Blood-curdling footage shows car swerves to miss runaway toddler in terrifying near-miss

Dashcam footage captured the horrifying moment a 2-year-old child wearing only a diaper wandered in the middle of a busy intersection in Arizona as cars zoomed past – before a good Samaritan rushed in to save the toddler.

The video, taken Friday evening in Mesa, shows the little boy running into the street as a mother screams and honks in her car as motorists speed by — with some swerving just inches from the toddler.

“When you watch the video, I become completely hysterical because I feel hopeless,” said the mother whose dashcam footage captured the horrific incident Family news from Arizona. “I felt like I was mentally preparing myself to see a child being crushed.”

The mother said she couldn’t risk using her vehicle to block the toddler’s traffic because her 7-year-old son was in the backseat of her car.

Horrifying dashcam footage shows a toddler running into oncoming traffic on a busy Arizona street.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to feel hopeless for long. The same footage shows that as she screamed, a heroic bystander rushes after the boy and quickly drags him to safety.

“I feel overwhelmed, but I’m just happy that the kind woman was willing to sacrifice her life to go out on the road and grab him,” the mother added.

The wandering boy’s father, Alex Schabel, told Fox 10 Phoenix He wasn’t home when his children got out, but got an alert from his doorbell camera when a stranger brought home his other son, who was 9 months old.

The footage shows a woman rushing towards the boy and pulling him out of the danger zone.

“I see my door wide open and a lady holding my child, and she tells me my children are running in the middle of the street,” he said.

The children’s mother, who is struggling with postpartum depression, had gone outside for a moment and forgot to lock the door, the father told Arizona’s Family News.

While Schabel expressed his shame over the situation, the mother who captured the incident on camera said people should not be so quick to judge.

“We do not understand the full extent of her struggles, but as a community we must extend grace and approach her situation with compassion, yet hold her fully accountable,” she said.

The child's mother had run away and forgotten to lock the door and the boy got out, his father said. via FOX10 Phoenix — The child’s mother had run away and forgotten to lock the door and the boy got out, his father said. via FOX10 Phoenix

The child's mother left and forgot to lock the door and the boy got out, his father said. via FOX10 Phoenix — The child’s mother had run away and forgotten to lock the door and the boy got out, his father said. via FOX10 Phoenix

The boy’s father said the Department of Child Protection had allowed his wife to be with their children.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is also investigating and may file endangerment charges against Schabel’s wife.