Terrifying dashcam vid shows moment toddler in nappy runs into ROAD as cars swerve to avoid him & driver screams

HEART-STOPPING dashcam footage shows the moment a toddler runs onto a busy road in his nappy as a speeding car swerves to avoid him.

The tot stumbled onto the dark road - apparently trying to make his way across - before a woman nearby spotted him at the junction and sprinted over to scoop him up.

Dashcam footage from a driver at the scene recorded a woman's chilling scream as she witnessed the terrifying near-miss.

She had her own little boy, aged seven, in the back of the car and said she felt "hysterical" as she prepared herself to "watch a child be crushed".

The little boy, two-and-a-half years old, had wondered a fair way onto the road just outside Phoenix, Arizona, as huge 4X4's hurtled past.

According to FOX 10 the traffic was moving at at least 45 miles per hour at the time of the incident on Sunday.

Local cops from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office have launched a probe and are investigating endangerment charges against the child's mother.

The toddler's dad told FOX 10 that he wasn't home at the time.

He said he got an alert from his doorbell camera when the woman who saved his child took him home.

"I see my door wide open with some lady holding my child, and she tells me that I have my kids running in the middle of the street," he said.

"Thankful a resident of the area saw them and got them out of harms way, which I am incredibly grateful for.

"I didn't quite get her name, but I'd like to thank her personally.

"Be more attentive to your children out there," he added.

He also has a nine-month-old child who left the family home around the same time.

The woman who screamed in the dashcam footage was driving with her seven-year-old son in the back of the car at the time of the incident.

Unable to use her car to stop traffic, she desperately honked her horn to try and get the child to move off the road.

The footage shows him stopping to turn and look at her vehicle momentarily before he is rescued.

She told AZ Family: "When you look at the video, I’m completely hysterical because I feel hopeless.

"I felt like I was mentally preparing myself to watch a child be crushed.

"I’m feeling overwhelmed, but just happy that the kind woman was willing to sacrifice her life to go into the road and grab him."