Toddlers wander near busy road after escaping Australian childcare centre

Two 2-year-old children are seen in dashcam footage wandering unsupervised near a busy Gold Coast road. Screenshot / 7 News

Two small children were rescued from beside a busy road after doing a runner from an Australian childcare centre on Friday.

Dramatic dashcam footage posted to social media has captured the moment a driver who spotted the children came to their aid just as one motioned to step off the gutter on to the road in the Gold Coast town of Coomera.

Two schoolchildren also appeared on the scene.

"We literally just saved the lives of two babies today," the driver, Rondell Nicol, wrote on a local Facebook page.

The children, both aged 2, had been attending Okee Dokee Coomera Rivers childcare centre, which says it is assisting in an investigation from the Queensland education department.

The mother of one of the children, Skyla, told the ABC the incident was her worst nightmare and she was grateful for the quick actions of strangers who saved her daughter.

A woman and schoolchildren come to the toddlers' aid. Screenshot / 7 News

"She got out through the back gate, she went walking down on Foxwell Rd where the main road is," Amelia Finney said.

"She was seconds away – she went to take a step off the gutter to try to go on to the road."

Finney claimed the centre did not inform her of the incident until an hour after her daughter's close shave, and said Skyla would not be returning.

"They were very apologetic, but I don't think it's right they got out and I wasn't notified," she said.

An Okee Dokee spokeswoman said in a statement an investigation was under way and parents had been notified.

"No harm was brought to any child," she said.

Queensland Police are also investigating the incident.