A Massachusetts man who became pinned under an SUV, weighing nearly three tons, while doing brake work last weekend was saved by his daughter, who somehow found enough super-human strength to lift the truck off of him.
"I don't know what I would have done without her," Adam Simmons told Yahoo! Shine of his daughter Rachael. "She never even thought twice about it. She was on fire."
Adam had been replacing the brake pads on Rachael's Jeep Liberty in the driveway of their Plymouth home. But the jack and two jack stands that were holding up the vehicle collapsed, pinning his left leg under the rusty brake rotor. "I just didn't even see it coming and it crashed right onto me," he said, adding that he then screamed for help.
“I ran out of the house and I saw him under my car,” Rachael Simmons told WBZ CBS Boston, which reported the story this week. “I just lifted so he could get free. It was just the adrenaline rushing right through my body. I don’t know if I would have been able to do it otherwise.”
SUVs, like the one Racheal lifted, aren't exactly lightweight. The 2012 Jeep Liberty clocks in at around 5,600 pounds when completely empty, according to Motortrend.com.
SUVs, like the one Racheal lifted, aren't exactly lightweight. The 2012 Jeep Liberty clocks in at around 5,600 pounds when completely empty, according to Motortrend.com.
Adam Simmons is using crutches after the accident. (Photo: WBZ CBS Boston)When Adam found himself pinned under the car, he yelled as loudly as he could, but wasn't sure anyone would hear him, as his wife and daughter were inside the closed-up house with several air conditioners running.
Luckily, Rachael, 22, appeared at his side after about a minute and a half, which "felt like forever," he said. "She just grabbed a hold of the car and I slid my leg out. I was shaking. I was afraid to look at it, honestly."
For now, he's quickly recovering but sore, walking with crutches and "so very grateful" to not be as bad off as he was 25 years ago, when a bike accident left him with a severely broken right leg.
"She's my hero," said the proud dad. As for Rachael, she was examined at the hospital for back strain, which left her feeling sore once the adrenaline wore off.
Instances of people finding super-human, or “hysterical” strength, in times of panic have been regularly documented. In 2012, a pair of teen sisters in Oregon saved their dad by lifting a 3,000-pound overturned tractor off of him. Also last year, a 22-year-old Virginia woman hoisted a car off of her father after a jack that held it up gave way while he was working on it.
University of South Florida football player Danous Estenor became an overnight hero in 2011 after lifting a Cadillac Seville to free a tow-truck driver who had become trapped beneath its rear tire.
“I tried to lift the car, and when I first tried, it didn't budge. I backed up. I don't know. But I felt this energy come, and I lifted it,” Estenour had told the Tampa Bay Times about the incident. “I don't know how, but somebody pulled him from the car."
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