School bus driver rescues lost toddler wandering Tampa street; child reunited with family – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports
TAMPA, Fla. (WSVN) — A school bus driver is being hailed a hero after a child she saw wandering alone near a busy road in Tampa was safely reunited with loved ones.
A normal drive on Barbara Baker’s route back in August quickly turned into a rescue mission.
“Look at the baby walking in the street by himself. Oh my god,” she uttered to herself.
Baker said she always looks ahead when she’s driving but on that day she saw something odd—a toddler in the distance wandering a residential street.
“I looked again and seen the shoes, the pajamas, and I’m like ‘Oh my God it’s a baby. My heart just dropped,” she said.
She didn’t hesitate to stop and pull the bus over, bringing the little boy on board.
“When I approached the baby he just looked at me and I said ‘Come on baby, let me take you to mommy’ so he let me pick him up and I walked up and down the sidewalk,” she said.
While trying to find his parents the boy kept asking about his mom.
“Momma, momma, momma,” the child repeated.
And that made Baker think about her own family.
“I wanted to cry because I thought about my grandbabies and I’m like ‘Oh cars are passing and no one is helping the baby in the road’,” she said.
Police quickly arrived and told her that the child was two-and-a-half blocks away from home.
“He walked a long ways down the street to the middle of this road and I was like ‘Oh my God,” she said.
They were ultimately able to track down the child’s family and return him home where he belongs.
“It makes me want to cry. Now I feel a little emotional but knowing the baby is home, that’s the big thing for me,” she said.
Hillsborough County said their school buses are designated as “safe spaces” and drivers are trained to be on the look out for scenarios just like this one.
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