A Texas bus driver told how he narrowly avoided plowing into a 14-month-old baby girl sitting half-naked in the middle of a busy road, as CCTV footage emerged of the nail-biting incident, Sky News reported Thursday.
Mike Hubbard was on his usual San Antonio bus route just after midnight when he saw something in the road ahead of him.
"I was definitely in shock. From a distance I can't tell exactly what it is," Hubbard told local Texas news station WOAI-TV.
"It looks like a dog, something moving around, I can't really tell what it was. I started slowing down and then I noticed it's a baby in the middle of the street."
"I couldn't tell if he was eating something or not. But, his eyes got real big when he saw the big old bus in front of him."
Hubbard slammed on the brakes, stopping just inches from the baby.
The incident was caught on a CCTV camera on the front of the bus.
In another strange twist, as the shaken driver rushed out to check the baby, its father appeared and simply grabbed her and ran off, without even thanking Hubbard for his quick action.
The infant was since identified as Destiny Flores, a toddler who, as a result of the near-miss, is now the subject of a custody battle.
The bus company VIA reported the incident to Texas child protection services, who have yet to decide whether Destiny and her two sisters can stay with their parents.
Destiny's mother Catherine Gonzalez, 25, claimed it was just an unfortunate accident.
She said the youngsters were in the living room watching TV and she had no idea Destiny escaped until she heard a horn and a screeching sound as the bus braked.
"We had the door open, but there's a screen door. I had the lock on it, but I don't know, maybe I didn't put it all the way and she just snuck out. I really can't even tell you," she told WOAI-TV.
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