Man runs into traffic to rescue 2 toddlers on busy Florida highway

A photographer did not think twice when he saw two tiny figures right in the middle of a coastal highway in Florida.

He jumped out of his car, stopped a speeding car, scooped up the toddlers and carried them out of harm’s away.

The rescue unfolded on Jan 11 along State Road A1A in Brevard County.

A video shared on Facebook by Drone Geox, a Merritt Island-based drone company, shows its employee John Brittingham running towards two young girls standing in the roadway as a white car bears down on them.

With one arm raised to halt oncoming traffic, he scoops up the first child, then bends to collect the second, who reaches out to him from near the edge of the road.

Within seconds, the girls are off the asphalt and on the pavement.

Mr Brittingham, whose age was not reported but is a father of five and grandfather of one, said he had been driving southbound on A1A after completing a real estate photography job when he noticed the children.

He pulled over immediately and ran.

“I was terrified thinking of what could have happened to them,” he told local news station WESH 2. “If anything would’ve happened, the rest of my life would have been ruined.”

He estimated that the girls were no older than two. In the footage, they appear unsteady but calm, lifting their arms towards the man rushing to them.

After carrying them to safety, Mr Brittingham searched the surrounding neighbourhood, knocking on doors in search of the family.

He eventually arrived at an Airbnb, where a backyard gate had been left open. The adults inside, including an elderly couple and a young woman, told him they had not realised the toddlers had wandered off.

Mr Brittingham said his priority was reuniting the children with their family, not calling the police.

Cocoa Beach police later said they were not contacted about the incident, and no injuries were reported.

Many of those who commented on the Facebook video slammed the girls’ family for negligence that could have ended so badly.

One said cars usually travel at high speeds along the road where the toddlers wandered off to.

“Kids could have easily been killed,” he said.

Another remarked: “Probably should have called the police anyway, just to be sure it hadn’t happened before, and that it won’t happen again!”

One rightfully described Mr Brittingham as a “giant huge extreme mega superhero”.

Mr Brittingham, however, is just relieved he was able to reunite the toddlers with their family.

“I had an adrenaline spike, I had a migraine when I finally got home,” he said. “I was drained completely for the rest of the day.”