Hero dad leaps over pool fence, dives head-first to rescue toddler son from drowning

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A fast-reacting Florida father leaped over a pool fence and dove head-first to save his 1-and-half-year-old son from drowning, and it was all caught on camera in a dramatic surveillance video posted on Facebook.

Albert Passavanti said it was a "normal but very hot" Sunday afternoon in West Palm Beach when his son Rocco "noticed the ball get blown across the pool and he went for it."

"Baby gates only work when you close them," Passavanti wrote in the Facebook video's description.

Rocco is seen in the surveillance footage running to the shiny and colorful beach ball, falling into the pool as he reaches for it.

Albert noticed Rocco in the pool and immediately sprinted to his son's rescue, leaping over a 4-foot fence and diving into the water after the boy.

"The second you see it; you get Superman strength and just have to go for it," Passavanti told WPTV-TV. "Whatever you got to do."

He told the station that it didn't even cross his mind to go around the pool fence, saying "it was point A to point B."

"Rocco is getting faster and more daring so us parents are stepping up our preventative measures including swim lessons," Passavanti said.

He said the gate is always shut unless there is a capable adult present.

"But can't stress enough, nothing is as effective as watching your kids very closely," the dad said.

Unsupervised water activity is the number one cause of drowning in Palm Beach County and the U.S., according to the Drowning Prevention Coalition of the county's website.

This story was reported in Los Angeles.