Video shows North Babylon man rescuing girls in runaway car

The quick response of a North Babylon man saved three young girls who found themselves in a runaway vehicle last month while surveillance cameras captured the rescue.

The scene unfolded at the Lukoil gas station on the corner of Bay Shore Road and Commack Road, according to a manager at the station.

The manager, who did not give his name, said he released the footage to David Cincotta, who he identified as the hero. It was uploaded to YouTube on April 15.

Cincotta, 43, said he had just finished working on April 5 when he pulled into the station, which is located around the block from his home, around 2:30 p.m. He said he hardly ever fills up here, but this day was an exception.

He planned for the stop to be a quick one, but when he went inside the station’s minimart to pay, he ran into his father and the two started talking.

“I should’ve been out of there in 10 minutes,” he said.

Instead, he was still waiting to pay for his gas when another customer, a woman, walked into the shop. Seconds later, he said, he heard panicked cries coming from outside and saw the woman dart out the door. He followed.

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“I heard kids screaming, “Mommy!” Cincotta said. “They sounded really, really scared.”

The surveillance footage shows a white sedan parked near one of the station’s pumps suddenly start moving in reverse at a steady speed toward Commack Road.

Less than five seconds later, the woman appears on camera racing after the vehicle. A man, Cincotta, is right on her heels.

The car was only feet from the heavy traffic on Commack Road when the woman caught up and was able to swing open the driver’s side door, but it knocked her down.

Cincotta, however, jumped in and brought the car to a stop just in time.

“I put it in park, looked in the backseat and saw three kids,” he said.  “They said they were OK, and there were high-fives all around.”

The woman hugged Cincotta after checking on her children, he said.

“She was basically crying in my arms,” he said. “She was visibly shaken.”

He said she also sustained some bruises and road rash from her fall, but no major injuries. They didn’t exchange information and he hasn’t seen her since.

Cincotta said the woman had left her car running and one of the kids must have shifted the vehicle into reverse. As a parent himself, he sympathized with her.

“We’ve all done it,” he said. “She’ll probably never do it again, and I’ll never do it again.”

The video had been viewed close to 4,500 times on YouTube as of Wednesday morning.

“The most important thing is that the kids are safe,” he said of the kids in the car. “I was just at the right place, at the right time, thank God.”