Police volunteers are being credited for saving three lives on Wednesday night, on the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Volunteers Moshe Appelbaum and Shalom Levy were patrolling the highway shortly after dark when they spotted three young people standing at the side of the road behind their car, Channel 10 reports.

They pulled over to provide assistance, but first, ordered the three to stand on the other side of the metal barrier on the highway’s edge for safety reasons. They then put lights behind the car as a warning to other drivers.

The young man and two young women explained that their car had broken down, and that they had been waiting for roadside assistance.

Before help could arrive, a passing car came too close to the emergency shoulder, and ran into the broken-down car at high speed. Had the three youths still been standing there, they could have been killed.

“You saved our lives,” the shocked youths told the police volunteers.

The driver of the second car was not badly hurt in the crash. He told police that he had swerved to avoid colliding with a car on his other side, and had not seen the stranded vehicle on the shoulder of the road until it was too late.