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Cars wreck trying to avoid child wandering alone in street

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Police say a two-car crash was caused by drivers trying to avoid hitting a 2-year-old child found wandering on a busy highway.

It happened just after 9 a.m. Tuesday near the Harmony Crossroads Apartments on Tara Boulevard.

Channel 2's Tom Jones arrived on the scene minutes after the crash, moments after the boy's mother arrived on the scene.

She had one question for her upset son.

"Why would, why would you do that? You sorry? Why would you do that?" the unidentified woman said.

The boy cried as his mother questioned him. Paramedics checked him out to make sure he was OK.

Clayton County police said drivers saw the boy in the road and swerved to avoid hitting him.

Randy Iddings was one of those drivers. He says he saw the child in the road.

"I was scared for the child. He did not have a shirt on. No shoes. Just some pants. Screaming. Crying," he said.

Iddings said he slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the boy.

"As we stopped, I was rear-ended," he told Jones.

The driver who rear-ended him told Jones she was focused on the child as well.

The boy's mother told police she left her son home asleep with his dad. The child apparently woke up.

"Walked out of the home without his parents knowing," Lt. L. Strong said.

Police say the boy then ventured onto the highway.

Officers don't expect to file any charges against the boy's parents.

"There will probably be some kind of referral to DFACS and we're going to make sure the parents know, probably a good idea would be chains on the doors when you have children that young," Strong said.

The child's parents had no comment.