Terrifying dashcam footage captured the moment a four-year-old child, dressed only in a diaper and a top, runs into a busy intersection.
The newly released footage shows cars speeding down a residential street in Staten Island, New York on June 19, with a small figure holding an iPad in the middle of the road behind them.
There were no parents running after the boy as he entered the intersection of Harold Street and Sunset Avenue.
Fortunately, an alert Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus driver came to the boy’s aid.
Peter Warner stopped the bus and dashcam footage showed him getting out of his vehicle and taking the child into his arms.
Dashcam footage captured the moment a four-year-old ran through the middle of a busy street in Staten Island, New York.
Cars raced down the street as the boy ran, his parents not following him
“I blocked the intersection with the bus,” Warner told ABC 7“I got out, locked my bus and took the baby into my care.”
“If the child was running down the sidewalk, I would think the parents were chasing him, but he was in the middle of the street, right in the middle of the street,” he added.
Warner was then seen trying to make a call on his mobile phone, attempting to call emergency services, while holding the child in one arm.
While waiting for help to arrive, Warner carried the toddler into the bus and placed him in front of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, outside the bus, a Good Samaritan could be seen directing traffic around the stationary vehicle.
The video ends with a marked NYPD car arriving at the scene.
Peter Warner, an MTA bus driver, jumped into action, stopped his bus and grabbed the child
Warner, a father of two himself, said he tried to use the boy’s iPad to contact his parents but found access was restricted. according to the Staten Island Advance.
He then tried to hold the child’s hand to see if the boy would lead them to his house, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, police searched the area to see if they could find any parents who were panicking and looking for their son. They also found nothing.
Warner held the boy for a total of 45 minutes before NYPD officers took the boy to a local precinct.
But before he left, the boy wanted a hug from Warner – a touching moment captured by one of the passengers on the bus.
He was seen trying to call for help while the young boy was still in his arms
Warner said he had tried to locate the boys’ parents but had been unsuccessful.
About an hour later, police said the boy’s parents picked him up from the station. Warner said he believes a post on a community Facebook page played a key role in informing the boy’s mother that her son was at large.
It turned out the boy was four blocks from his home and had run away while his father was asleep and his mother was at work, ABC 7 reports.
“She gave me a big hug and thanked me profusely. She was also texting me all the time,” Warner said of the mother’s reaction.
“Now, every time I post pictures of my kids, we’re friends on Facebook and she responds to my kids’ pitches and stuff like that,” he said. “So we’ve made it a friendship.”
Warner, a father of two himself, said he and the boy’s mother have since become friends
Daniel Casella, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 726, praised Warner’s efforts afterward.
“There are a lot of things that happen during the day that go unnoticed,” he told the Staten Island Advance.
‘The drivers do so much every day to help people, and every now and then, you have something like this, and it’s really a miracle that nothing happened to that child.
Thank God he [Warner] “He ran into him and I thank God he stopped and did what he had to do because, you know, I don’t know if everybody would do that,” Casella added.