The heroic teacher, who was on her orthopedic boot, quickly jumped into the unmanned vehicle moving towards the children.

Last Wednesday, a New Jersey school teacher promptly jumped into a moving SUV and stopped it from charging towards children standing on the sidewalk. The incident was captured on tape just outside Soehl Middle School in Linden, New Jersey.

The surveillance footage showed a parent leaving his white SUV to give his daughter an iPad at the drop-off in front of the school. Valerie Tauriello, the health and physical education teacher, was on drop-off duty when she noticed the SUV rolling forward after the parent left it unattended. At first, she tried to draw the attention of the owner. As she realized how close the vehicle was to the children, Tauriello ran and jumped into the driver's side of the car, trying to stop it from moving further. According to reports, the parent also ran in front of the vehicle a few moments later in an attempt to stop it.

In a statement released later on Friday, Linden Public School District shared the video and praised Tauriello for her quick thinking and heroic act.

“I know I can’t run that fast, so at first I was kind of frozen,” said Tauriello, who was wearing her orthopedic boot. “But I was like, oh my God, I have to stop this car or it’s going to hurt somebody. It was a situation where a lot of people could have become injured. And without hesitation, I just had to jump into action and stop that moving car from running into the school or injuring the kids." 

Before hopping in, she shouted to another teacher on duty to get the students off the sidewalk.

"In a matter of seconds, she informed the father of what’s going on, informed the staff to get the kids out of the way, then thought enough to risk her life, because she could have gotten injured. This is the person she is, and this is every day with Ms. Tauriello, thinking of our students first. The Soehl Middle School family is just blessed to have her," Gwendolyn Long, the school's principal, praised Tauriello highly.

Tauriello is the head coach of the Linden High School softball team, and despite an old injury, she didn't think twice before dashing into a moving car to save others.

"I’m just glad everybody’s OK," she said. "It could have been bad."

Have you ever witnessed such incidents? Do you know someone as brave as Tauriello? Share with us in the comments below!