An Arizona electric utility worker is said to have issued “a powerful reminder of what it means to look out for one another” when, while on duty, he stopped a toddler from running into heavy car traffic after bolting away from a parent.

Robert Butler’s timely intervention was captured recently in a hair-raising video recorded by a surveillance camera in downtown Phoenix and released recently by his employer, Arizona Public Service (APS).

Once the video circulated on corners of the internet committed to finding stories with remarkable displays of bravery and selflessness, APS published a statement attributed to Butler in which he expressed gratitude for being “in the right place at the right time” to defuse a potentially deadly situation on the afternoon of 19 March.

Butler later also got emotional thinking about his own son, aged two, while speaking to the local news outlet KSAZ about the child he saved from harm.

“I just think about when I get home and my son’s happy to see me,” Butler told the outlet while wiping away tears from his eyes. “That little boy can be happy to see his parents or whoever.”

As APS put it, on the day of the emergency, a utility supervisor named Kort Meyer first saw the toddler in question running alone toward a busy road with rush-hour traffic.

Meyer – who was at an APS facility in downtown Phoenix – tried to intercept the child. Yet a locked gate impeded him.

Fortunately for everyone, Butler happened to be driving nearby in his bucket truck and saw what was unfolding. He immediately pulled his truck over, leaped out, sprinted toward the child and scooped up the toddler in his arms mere feet away from the four-lane road.

One truck had just driven down the lane into which the toddler would have stepped when Butler caught the child. Several seconds after Butler had collected the child, a sedan barreled down the next closest travel lane, the video shows.

A visibly relieved parent soon hurried up to Butler and reunited with the toddler.

Butler’s statement to APS pointed out that he usually does not drive on the street where he was that day.

His statement also mentioned his son and added that he could understand what the parent of the toddler whom he encountered had endured in that dramatic moment.

“I know how fast kids can move once they get going,” said Butler’s statement, which was dated 14 April. “As a parent, I can definitely relate.”

APS said Butler’s quick thinking didn’t just mean that afternoon “ended safely”. It was also “a powerful reminder of what it means to look out for another”, the company’s statement asserted.

Furthermore, in quotes cited by the Arizona news outlet AZFamily, Butler called the frantic episode a good reminder for every motorist to stay alert.

“A lot can change really, really fast,” Butler told AZFamily. “Be aware of your surroundings and try to look at the big picture.”