Man saves baby crawling on highway

A baby is safe after being found crawling on the side of a Georgia highway on Friday.

WXIA reports that motorist Bryant Collins was driving along the highway when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye — what he saw, though, shocked him.

“I had seen something out of the corner of my eye, and I thought it was a baby,” Collins told WXIA. “I just stopped and, when I got out, there was a baby … almost in the highway.”

The 15-month-old baby had crawled 300 yards from her home through a wooded area and was spotted just in time before she reached the highway.

Collins called the police and emergency crews arrived.

After authorities arrived on scene, Collins didn’t leave the baby’s side right away. According to CBS6, Collins stayed with the baby for nearly two hours, helping to calm her down.

“The baby started crying,” Collins told CBS 6. “So I turned on my phone and let her listen to some gospel music, and she calmed right down.”

While authorities were on scene the baby’s father approached and started screaming, “That’s my child,” officers told OnlineAthens. The baby’s mother also arrived on scene and told authorities she and her husband had been outside the house and left the child in the care of their other children, ages 13, 9 and 5.

The father was arrested on scene and charged with cruelty to children, reckless conduct and obstruction. The baby was returned to her mother by a DFACS worker so she could take the child for medical treatment.

“Everything was pretty much superficial that we saw,” Madison County sheriff Kip Thomas told USA Today. “Honestly that’s almost a miracle: that a 15-month-old can go that far from her house, into the woods, fall down an embankment, wind up near a major highway, and really not get hurt that bad.”

Contact Kira Terry at kterry@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kiraterry