A CASUAL stroll saw a Woodrow toddler dicing with death and throwing traffic into chaos on a busy main road.

Cars swerved to avoid the boy in Woodrow Drive before a passing motorist snatched the elusive youngster to safety.

The mystery toddler gave his name as Simon and said he was looking for his mother.

But eventually police identified him as three-year-old Simon Doyle, of Ashorne Close, Woodrow. He gave his "minder" the slip to visit his parents at their place of work - Poplars Springs on the Redditch Road, near Studley.

"The first I knew of it was when the supervisor told me he had been found," said mother Margaret.

Mrs Margaret Southam - who was looking after Simon at her Newland Close home a week after leaving hospital - said the lively youngster was off like a shot.

"My husband left Simon out for a minute while he washed his hands - and he was gone."

She said her husband drove all around Woodrow without finding Simon.

"He's very lively, and so gets bored with no-one to play with," she said.