Homeless Man Sees a Stroller Rolling Into Oncoming Traffic His Quick Thinking Prevents a Tragedy

Not everyone is able to jump into action when they see a bad situation unfold.

Fortunately, Ron Nessman isn’t one of those people. His quick thinking may have saved a baby’s life recently when a stroller started rolling straight into traffic.

A Potential Accident

It all started outside of a car wash station in California, where a woman was unloading her car. Suddenly, her stroller started rolling backward toward the road, where cars were zipping by. The woman’s great-nephew was inside that stroller, and as she went to catch him, the woman fell repeatedly.

In security footage that was shared with ABC News, you can see the woman trying to get up as the pram inches closer and closer to traffic. Suddenly, right before the stroller reaches the side of the road, a man appears on the screen and stops it.

“She sees the child going into the street and that's all she sees,” Nessman later recalled to CBS News. “She can't do nothing. I seen her and I felt so bad for the lady,” he continued. “I got nephews and nieces and I couldn't imagine something like that.”

An Unlikely Hero

“It was sudden, and I didn't want to do anything,” he recalled to the outlet.

The man was there that day, however, for a job interview at Applebee’s. He’d finished the interview and taken his sister to the car wash when he saw the runaway stroller. “The wind was blowing so hard, by the time I got to it, it was at the top of that driveway," Nessman told ABC News.

In another interview with KTLA, he explained how the woman was in shock following the incident. “Her knees were bleeding, she was traumatized from falling and from the baby going into traffic,” Nessman said. “I can only imagine what was going on in her head. It was heart-wrenching.”

Nessman believes he may have been there that day for a reason, though, and he’s taking the incident as a sign. “If you want something different, you're going to do something different, and today, I want something different out of life,” he explained to ABC News.

Everyday Heroes

Nessman’s story is a simple reminder to all of us that it only takes one small act to be somebody else’s hero. Sure, this was a life-saving act and one that the baby’s family will forever be grateful for. But there are all kinds of other small acts that can make a big difference as well.

Checking in on loved ones often goes a long way, especially when they’re feeling down or you haven’t heard from them in a while. Randomly doing something kind for someone in your life just because you want to is also a heroic thing to do. After all, no one ever really knows what someone else is going through.

And if you are out in public and see someone struggling, just lend a hand. Opening that door, offering to take a photo of a mom struggling to snap a selfie, or giving up your seat to someone else on public transit are all small acts that pack a punch.

At the end of the day, you never know just how much someone else may need your kindness… or how much you may need theirs in return tomorrow.