A mother and her three young children are grateful to be alive after facing a scary situation over the weekend. On Saturday (Oct. 8) morning, just before 3:45 a.m., 26-year-old Rodreka Morgan’s SUV stalled on train tracks with the powerful locomotive fast approaching — and her three young children inside.

As fate would have it, at that exact time, Mayor Eddie Daniels was on his way to work. The politician of a small town about two hours south of Atlanta spotted Morgan’s SUV on the train tracks. A Facebook post by the Vienna Police Department detailed how Daniels rescued Morgan, along with her 6-year-old, 3-year-old and 1-year-old, in the nick of time.

On that morning, officers responded to “a vehicle that had been struck by the train.” The post added, “A passing motorist saw the vehicle on the tracks and noticed the train coming and got out to help. The assisting motorist was able to get Morgan and her kids out of the vehicle just in time before the train struck the vehicle.” According to the Vienna Police Department, Daniels “sustained minor injuries from the impact and flying debris.”

Albany, Georgia news station WALB-TV spoke with Daniels about the heroic rescue. The station shared that he received eight stitches on his head and suffered a broken ankle during the incident. “I couldn’t let those babies sit there and get slaughtered by a train,” Daniels told the outlet. “I got the two small ones out. At that time, I [saw] the train and the 6-year-old. I was pulling her out and that’s when the train hit,” he added.

Unfortunately, Morgan did not walk away from the situation completely free. The Vienna Police Department reported the 26-year-old mother of three “had alcohol in her system.” She “was ​charged with a DUI and two counts of child endangerment.”