Dashcam footage shows two toddlers running onto a busy street after escaping a child care center.
A Gold Coast, Queensland coup-le recently shared on social media a dashcam footage showing two small children who were at the edge of a road and being rescued after running from Okeedokee Coomera Rivers childcare center in Gold Coast, Australia.
A mother's worst nightmare
Amelia Finney, the mother of one of the two toddlers, said that she was not told that her daughter escaped the center until after 5 p.m. She said she is yet to receive an incident report from the center. It was not until an hour later that she got a call which she wasn't able to answer because she was at work. She said the center did not attempt to make calls to her emergency contacts either.
Finney said that seeing the footage made her feel sick and described it as her worst nightmare. Reports say that her daughter, Skyla, got out through the center's back gate. The little girl then walked down on Foxwell Road which leads to the main road. Speaking to ABC News, Finney said that her daughter was seconds away from stepping off the gutter and going onto the main road. Thankfully, some school children and another woman grabbed the little children and saved them.
The childcare center had no idea the babies had escaped
The center explained to the mom that they didn't know that her little girl was missing and had no knowledge that the gate was open. "That's really scary," Finney said about the fact that the center had no idea about what was going on. According to the center, the gate had been manipulated from the outside and inadvertently opened as the toddler was fiddling with it.
Rondell Nicol, the woman who posted the video and one of those who rescued the toddlers, wrote that they just literally save the lives of two babies who were stepping onto the busy road near the Foxwell Road Finnegan Way roundabout.
Nicol said that they were driving back from the shops and as they come off the roundabout, they spotted the two babies with no adult nearby. They then saw school girls chasing the babies and realized that the toddlers were really alone. That was when they decided to pull over to help and prevent any untoward thing to happen.
As for Finney, she said she does not intend to have her child return to the childcare center. She said that while they were very apologetic, she doesn't think that it was right that the babies got out and she wasn't notified about it.
She said that for a two-year-old to get on the busy road by herself is very scary. Adding that it made her very anxious. An investigation is already underway and she hopes no other child has to get out of the center again.
Okee Dokee Early Learning Centre Coomera Rivers declined to make a comment regarding the incident but said that they were in contact with the Education Department.
