mum used herslf as bump to stop rolling car

A Lawrence, Mass.,
woman says she saved the
lives of her twin
daughters after she used
herself as a “speed bump” to stop her car
from rolling into traffic.
Mindy Tran, 22, says she had been living
in a shelter with twin daughters Saleen
and Sydney, and that they had recently
moved into their new apartment just days
before the incident.
“It felt like I was starting a new life,” she
told ABC News today from the hospital
where she is recovering from a broken leg
and dislocated shoulder and hip. “The
girls had started at daycare and we just
moved in. It seems like when things are
going too well, something bad will
happen.”
Tran says she is lucky to be alive after she
lay on the ground behind her Honda
Accord to stop it from rolling into the
street with her kids still inside. “I laid
down horizontally, using my body as a
speed bump to stop the car,” she said.
(Photo Credit: Courtesy Mindy
Tran)
Her 2-year-old daughters were buckled in
the back seat when the car started rolling.
A neighbor also came to help.
“My neighbor jumped in and he asked
what I wanted them to do,” she said. “I
said make sure my daughter’s got out of
the car safely.”
Her neighbor was able to get the girls out
and they were uninjured, she added. “My
daughters and I are all right and keeping
our heads up,” she said. “I’m lucky to be
alive.”
There was no damage to the car,
Lawrence Fire Department Chief John
Marsh said. “Firefighters responded to the
apartment and they stabilized the car with
wooden blocks and then used an airbag to
lift the car off Tran,” he said, adding that
she was eventually airlifted to a Boston-
area hospital.
“We’ve seen something like this before,”
he said. “It is an unfortunate accident and
somehow her car wasn’t in gear.”
Tran says she cannot walk and will have
surgery in the coming days, along with
physical therapy. “I crushed my knee,
injured my hips and dislocated a
shoulder,” she said.
Tran’s twin girls will celebrate their
birthday April 13. She says the medical
facility at which she is staying has offered
to let them have a party there so she can
be with them.
“It’s not going to be the same for them
celebrating a birthday here at the
hospital,” she said, “but as a mother I
want to see them.”
Tran says she could be in the hospital for
a few weeks.
“I don’t consider myself a hero,” she said.
“I am just a mother.”