Lezlie Bicknell acted on instinct when she saved two children stuck inside a runaway van.
The woman had pulled up next to the van in a convenience store parking lot near Albuquerque, New Mexico, when she noticed a small child in the driver's seat. When she saw the van start to roll backward, Bicknell jumped out of her truck and tried to block the car from rolling into the busy street, KOAT-TV reports.
But what Bicknell didn't notice was that she had knocked her own car into gear and it was also headed toward the traffic. Luckily, the truck rolled just behind the van, blocking the kids from harm's way.
Police are looking into the incident, which was captured on tape by a nearby surveillance camera, but Sgt. Sam White told KOAT the event exemplifies why parents shouldn't leave children unattended in the car.
Bicknell wrote on her Facebook wall that she's just happy the children are safe, the New York Daily News notes.
"I just decided to go public so that parents would Please Please stop leaving kids in the car 'for just a second,'" Bicknell wrote on Facebook.
In addition to unprecedented dangers, leaving children (or pets) in cars can be risky, particularly during warmer months when heat can pose a threat to their health.
According to data from KidsAndCars.org, 16 percent of non-traffic fatalities involving children younger than 15 are a result of heat strokes.
Capt. Ivan Minsal from the LAPD's Valley Traffic Division told the Los Angeles Daily News there's no telling what can happen when adults leave loved ones unattended in a car.
"You think you're going to run a quick errand so you leave your child or beloved canine in the car. Two or three minutes turns into 15 or 20, and when you come back, disaster has occurred," Minsal told the paper.