Watch toddler in a car seat fall onto road — and truck driver slam brakes to save her
Chad Mock was driving down a road in Minnesota when he witnessed a parent’s worst nightmare come true.
A 2-year-old toddler, strapped in her car seat, tumbled from her mother’s car in the town of Mankato and onto the busy road below, video shows. And Mock, a truck driver for decades, was driving his large vehicle straight towards the helpless child, KARE11 reported.
“This is probably the most unique, craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” Mock said, according to KARE11. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff going down the road behind the wheel of a truck, but I’ve never seen anyone’s kid fall out of the back of their vehicle.”
At first, Mock said he was shocked by the shocking turn of events — and wasn’t sure what to make of it, Fox9 reported.
“As I was coming up to the corner, I noticed a car going around the corner and something fell out,” Mock told Fox9. “As I got closer, it looked like a doll — possibly a doll in a car seat.”
But then, he said, he realized it was a child in harm’s way. He called it “just unbelievable” in an interview with “Inside Edition.”
Dashcam footage from Mock’s truck shows him driving behind the car when a rear passenger’s door opens, and the girl in pink clothing spills out onto the road. Mock slams on his truck’s brakes to avoid hitting the child, video shows, and then gets out onto the road to warn another oncoming car about the toddler that lay before it.
As explained by Mankato Department of Public Safety Commander Daniel Schisel, “the mother actually goes through (an) intersection and pulls over and parks and walks back to the incident location,” according to KARE 11.
Mock, who waited near the scene, said the girl’s mother “was pretty hysterical as, obviously, a mother would be in that situation,” Fox9 reported.
Now, “Mankato police are recommending the Blue Earth County Attorney’s Office charge the mother with child endangerment and not fastening a child restraint system,” according to The Mankato Free Press.