A father was just moments away from tragedy after he narrowly avoided crashing into an 18-month-old toddler who ran out in front of his car.

Dad of four Damian Smith was driving along Portswood Road at around 1.30pm on Monday when he was forced to perform an emergency stop as a child suddenly appeared in front of his car.

Describing the youngster as between 18 months and two years old, the shaken-up Hyundai i30 driver said: “If I was just a split second later on the brakes, then the situation could have become extremely tragic.

“My tyres were screeching and in that moment, I was just so scared for the child.

“Not only could the parents have lost their child - but also, I could have forever had to live with the guilt of being too late in that moment.

“A few seconds after I had stopped the child started to head toward more traffic in the direction of Thomas Lewis Way – that’s when my father instincts kicked in and I jumped straight out to get a hold of the kid.”

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The 43-year-old said that he spoke to some people who were walking not far behind the child and they said he had come running from up the road.

After waiting around four to five minutes with the child in hand, a ‘panicked’ man came to Damian and told him: “You have saved my son's life.”

It transpired that the young child had escaped from the back gate of a property very close to Portswood Road.

The father-of-four continued: “This just goes to show the importance of always watching your children – just minutes out of sight could mean life or death.

“I was driving at the correct speed and my eyes were on the road – what happened was extremely lucky. The incident really shook me up – it was extremely scary."

Hampshire Police also attended the incident, with a spokesperson adding: "We were called at 1.25pm to Portswood Road. No injuries or crimes were identified.

"There is no further police involvement."