Watch: Mum, baby in scary spin out after near-miss on North Island highway

This is the moment a mum and her five-month old baby were seconds from a nasty head-on collision on a North Island highway.

The nail-bitingly close call was captured on dashcam as Nikki and her baby Emily were heading north on SH3 to Whanganui yesterday.

Her Subaru Outback was travelling up a straight stretch of highway when a Mazda Axela waiting to turn right suddenly pulled across her path.

The footage shows the level-headed Marton mum take evasive action, first swerving around the car only to end up fishtailing out-of-control over the double yellow-lines and into the path of on-coming traffic.

Her car keeps spinning 360 degrees on the wrong side of the road before it finally comes to rest back in the left lane.

As the dramatic 9 seconds of terror unfold Nikki shows nerves of steel, her true feelings betrayed by a slight quiver in her voice as she calms her terrified child.

"That's okay, that's okay," she tells her crying baby startled by the sudden swerving.

Nikki told the Herald she thought the turning car was edging out to go behind her but quickly realised that wasn't the case.

"I thought going left would still be my best option. I was braking very hard and the tyres let go on the rumble strips I think. I took my foot off the brake to try and get control back, but once I started going sideways figured it would be best to get my speed down as fast as possible. "

She said quickly pulled off the road and put on her hazard lights. Nobody stopped to help.

While she was left quite shaken by the close call she was incredibly thankful there were no cars coming in the opposite direction when her car crossed the centreline.

She also said it valuable lesson in restraining children in suitable carseats.

Husband Bruce said it could have easily turned out very nastily, especially with a baby in the car. He was very disturbed the driver left the scene without checking if his wife was okay.

He had since posted the footage on social media and intended contacting police about the driver's behaviour.

A police spokeswoman said they were aware of the footage and making enquiries.