A Man Narrowly Saved A Baby From Rolling Into Traffic After His Aunt Fell — Some Think She Did It On Purpose
People are convinced there was foul play, despite all evidence to the contrary.
TikTok A video showing the harrowing scene that unfolded for an older woman and her baby nephew has gone viral after the child was narrowly saved from a horrifying accident.
But in the aftermath, many think the story doesn't add up despite all evidence to the contrary, and some are convinced there was foul play involved.
Some think a woman purposefully pushed her baby nephew into traffic in Hesperia, California.
The video shows the moment when a woman's visit to a car wash in Hesperia, California nearly ended in a horrific tragedy. As she was leaning into the back seat of her car, her baby nephew's stroller suddenly began rolling toward busy Bear Valley Road, which was full of speeding traffic, after being caught in a gust during high winds.
The woman fell and injured herself and was unable to make it to her feet as the baby stroller nearly rolled into traffic.
The video shows the woman, who is the baby boy's great-aunt, realizing the child's stroller had taken off. She immediately dives for it, but she stumbles on her way and takes a cringe-inducing hard fall on the pavement, appearing to badly injure at least one of her knees in the process.
She also appears to hit her head on the pavement in the fall, leading many to wonder if she was concussed and in a daze, or possibly feeling dizzy after her fall, because no matter how hard she tries, the woman is unable to get back on her feet.
As the stroller containing her baby nephew rolls ever closer to the busy road, the woman attempts to get to the stroller again, nearly making it up off the pavement before stumbling again and crumpling back to the ground as the stroller rolls right up to the edge of the road.
A bystander heard the commotion and saved the day mere seconds before the baby stroller nearly rolled into traffic.
Local residents Donna Gunderson and her brother Ron Nessman were seated on a nearby patio when they heard the baby's great-aunt screaming for help. Nessman, who was previously homeless for eight years, had just finished a job interview at an Applebee's down the street, and before Gunderson realized what was happening, she saw her brother racing toward the car wash.
He arrived just in time to save the stroller from rolling into busy Bear Valley Road. As seen in the video below, Nessman told Los Angeles' ABC 7 that he "instinctively" ran toward the stroller when he saw it, and when he and another bystander made it to the baby's great aunt and could finally help her up, she was absolutely terrified.
"She was traumatized," Nessman said. There's no question that the situation was a very near miss. Understandably, the baby's great-aunt was inconsolable, according to Nessman. "She was just in shock," he told ABC 7, "that's why I gave her a hug."
Many people online have accused the woman of being incompetent or even deliberately allowing the baby to roll toward traffic.
Despite Nessman's eye-witness account of the near tragedy, many online have been quick to mock, criticize and accuse the baby's great aunt of being responsible for the near-miss. "I call bs," one man on TikTok commented. "This just pissed me off." Many others questioned why the woman wasn't able to get to her feet. "I'm sorry for asking but why was she not able to get up," one woman wrote. "She kept falling, but she didn't fall that bad. I mean..."
Many criticized her weight, saying that if she were in better shape she'd have been able to run after the baby. "Looks like that person needs to lose weight to get back on [her] legs," one user sniped. Some questioned why the baby's mother allowed him to be cared for by an elderly woman with mobility issues, as if affordable childcare isn't an ongoing crisis in every part of this country.
But most shocking were the people who accused the woman of purposefully endangering the baby. "She didn't even try," a TikToker wrote of the woman's struggle to get on her feet, while another user thought "Someone looks drunk." Another TikTok user was more direct — "I’m sorry but she purposely did that."
Of course, the actual details of the story, including Nessman's account, don't at all concur with this interpretation, and many pointed out the obvious reasons the woman wasn't able to intervene as the baby stroller nearly rolled into traffic.
"Unless you’re super fit, at a certain age, once you fall, getting up without help is difficult," one TikToker wrote. Others empathized with how the great-aunt must be feeling. "This feels like a bad nightmare where you are trying to run away and just can’t," one woman wrote.
Mostly, people were just thankful that Nessman was in the right place at the right time — including Nessman himself. As he put it to LA's NBC 4, "I knew I could get it and I got it and I'm thankful for that because I really wouldn't want to see the end result if I wasn't there." And if nothing else, we all learned a valuable lesson here — as several people pointed out, this is why you always lock your stroller's wheels!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.