Updated: Thu Jun. 11 2009 5:01:03 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

A three-year-old boy struck by an alleged hit-and-run driver has seen his condition upgraded to serious from critical condition.

The boy is in the Hospital for Sick Children suffering from a broken leg and injuries to his face. His parents are at his side.

In addition, his family has released a statement thanking the man who helped police catch the man accused of striking the boy before driving off.

"We want to thank the Good Samaritan who helped police apprehend the driver. Our family is grateful," they said in the statement released Thursday. "We appreciate all the prayers and support from everyone during this difficult time."

Lebert St. Bernard was on his way home from work when he saw the child cross Britannia Road by himself at 1 a.m. Wednesday.

The toddler had managed to slip out of his home on Glen Erin Drive undetected and wandered onto the street.

"The car just come, smashed the kid," he told CTV Toronto as he shook his head and made a 'smack' noise with his palms. "Threw him a couple hundred yards."

St. Bernard said the driver looked at the injured child then left.

He chased the suspect, boxed him in with his truck and called police.

"He said he was going home. I said, 'you just run over somebody's kid and you're telling me you're going to drop your daughter home,'" St. Bernard said.

"I said, 'No. It doesn't work like that. You staying right here. You ain't going nowhere.'"

A tow truck driver helped St. Bernard restrain the suspect.

If anyone -- including his wife -- considers St. Bernard a hero, the father of three doesn't apply that term to himself.

"Any normal, positive-thinking parent or person would do what I did ... It's a kid, it's a human being, it's a life."

Donna Boca, St. Bernard's wife, said that's her husband. "He came almost 2 a.m. and he just took the sheets off the children because he just wanted to see them."

When his children woke up Wednesday morning, St. Bernard hugged them especially hard: "I thanked God they were alive," he said.

Police arrested the suspect, 48-year-old Syed Hoda of Mississauga, and charged him with failing to remain at the scene of a collision.

He is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice on July 13.

With reports from CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin and Zuraidah Alman