Woman Runs to Car That Crashes in Front of Her — Girl inside Asks, ‘Are You Going to Save My Mom?

In the early hours of an April morning a few weeks ago, a mother and her two children were in tremendous danger when their car went off the side of the road. Luckily, a US Marshal was there to help.

Sandy Ledbetter-Clarkson was on her way to Richmond International Airport on Interstate 295 South at 4 a.m. The US Marshal was headed to Ohio, where she was to extradite a fugitive, but she made an unexpected stop.

Virginia State Police called Ledbetter-Clarkson's succeeding actions heroic, but she doesn't feel like she was heroic. In fact, she thinks she did what any other person in the same position would have done.

While many around her know what she did for the woman in need when she was on her way to catch a flight for her job, Ledbetter-Clarkson thinks there was no question about whether or not she should help.

It was meant to be an ordinary, working Sunday for the US Marshal, but a chance encounter ended in her helping a woman who might otherwise have been stranded with two young children.

Ledbetter-Clarkson was driving along when she saw the woman's car going off the side of the road. She assumed the car was pulling over, but then she saw the vehicle was not stopping and continued down an embankment onto a tree.

Ledbetter-Clarkson knew she had to take action and help in whatever way she could. What she didn't know was that she would be saving an entire family.

The US Marshal pulled her car over and rushed toward the accident scene. She could hear the driver screaming for help, and when she got to the car, she saw two young children in the vehicle. Ledbetter-Clarkson said: "God put me in the right place at the right time."

The US Marshal Saved Two Children and Their Mother

Ledbetter-Clarkson opened the car door and managed to get the two children out of the back seat of the car and to safety. However, when they got to the top of the embankment, one of the children asked Ledbetter-Clarkson: "Are you going to save my Mommy?"

She immediately sprang back into action and advanced on the smoking vehicle to save the woman in the driver's seat. Ledbetter-Clarkson said she got the driver out of a seatbelt entanglement and helped her out of the car.

However, she couldn't do it alone. At that point, she said she felt God sending her help. Ledbetter-Clarkson shared:

"I had her halfway up the hill. And there stood a man just out of nowhere. And I said, 'Dude, you gotta help me get this lady the rest of the way up the hill.'"

Although she said the man was initially hesitant, he helped her, and they found a way to get the woman to the top of the embankment for her children. Ledbetter-Clarkson revealed she was afraid the woman's car, which was on fire, would explode any second.

Ledbetter-Clarkson and Her Helper Acted in Time

Ledbetter-Clarkson knew there was a real danger for the woman if she remained in the burning car for too long. She and the man found a way to haul her up the hill quickly enough to get her away from the vehicle.

It was a race against time, but Ledbetter-Clarkson and the man who lent a hand won. By the time they got the driver to the top of the embankment safely, the car was fully engulfed in flames.

Because of how quickly Ledbetter-Clarkson acted on the scene, the woman and her two children were left relatively unscathed. Ledbetter-Clarkson also still made her flight to Ohio that morning.

Police said if Ledbetter-Clarkson hadn't been on the scene so quickly, the story could have ended much more tragically. Now, the mother and her children are all okay and expected to make a full recovery.

"Everybody Knows Sandy"

When Ledbetter-Clarkson is not saving whole families from burning cars, she receives respect on the streets of Richmond for her prowess in her professional life. She even has the respect of the criminals she arrests.

In 2013, she was part of a task force sent to find a fugitive on the lam. They expected he would put up a fight or try to run, but he exited the house and surrendered willingly to Ledbetter-Clarkson and her team.

The fugitive, Kelvin M. Coleman Jr., was not surprised to see Ledbetter-Clarkson on his doorstep and had even tried to reach her the night before to arrange his surrender under his mother's suggestion. However, Ledbetter-Clarkson did not pick up.

Ledbetter-Clarkson apologized for missing the call and then phoned Coleman's mother to let her know he had surrendered. On the way to the police department, Ledbetter-Clarkson found she was well-acquainted with Coleman's family as she had previously arrested his sister.

Richmond police Detective Corey Watson says that Ledbetter-Clarkson gets along with everyone and then joked:

"Everybody knows Sandy."

Ledbetter-Clarkson's reputation in Richmond is one of firm fairness, and she is respected by all in the community. She is one of the only law enforcement officers that everybody in the community knows by name.

She is also a mother and wife, making her life complete. Yet she still found time to star in a show about cops. She was on "Crime 360," which is based around law enforcement in Richmond.

Ledbetter-Clarkson's episode aired in 2008, years before her story about Coleman was told and ages before she saved a mother and her two children from their burning car. Yet she showed her firm and fair nature in the show.

While she certainly has a lot on her plate with her law enforcement job, her relative fame in her community, and her heroism, Ledbetter-Clarkson remains a wonderful person and gains new respect each time she performs an act of kindness.

Ledbetter-Clarkson is not the only one who performs heroic acts, to see another one, click here.