An RAC mechanic owes his life to a group of rugby players who lifted a one-tonne Jaguar which fell on him as he worked underneath it.
Jason Hutchings had raised the S-type car on a jack but it slipped and pinned him to the ground and left him unconscious with multiple broken bones.
The dad-of-two was only saved thanks to the burly members of a rugby club where the accident happened who physically lifted the heavy car off him.
Jason, 38, now faces a long road to recovery with fractured vertebrae in his back, broken ribs and multiple fractures of his collarbone.
A week on, he remains on oxygen in the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent where he was airlifted from the car park at Canterbury Rugby Club.
But after working for the RAC for nearly nine years he says his terrifying experience will not put him off returning to work.
Jason said: “Without the help of the guys at the rugby club I would be dead.
“It was a big car – it must have weighed a tonne and I just thought they would never, ever be able to lift it off me, it was impossible.
“But they did and I am eternally grateful to them.”
He added: “It was just like any other job. I jacked the car up, went underneath and I think the jack must have slipped and made the car fall.
“All I remember is thinking there is no way I’m going to get out of this. I thought ‘that’s it, it’s over’.
“I don’t believe it was a fault with the equipment. It was just one of those things. I’ll go back to work but I’ll just be a bit more conscious about what I am doing.”
Jason hopes to be discharged from hospital this weekend and back home in Faversham, with wife Karen and their daughters Caitlin, four, and Morgan, six.
He added: “I just want to thank everyone for their help. I wouldn’t be here without them all.”
Rugby club chairman Giles Hilton said: “It’s pretty fortunate that we were there.
“Se’ll have to remind any future RAC workmen to only come on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the players are training.
“But jokes aside, we are very pleased with the actions the guys took, and presumably it was those actions that saved this man’s life.
“I am incredibly proud of the club and the swift move that members took to make sure this man survived.”
RAC spokesman Pete Williams said: “We are very grateful to members of the club and the public who helped and actually lifted the vehicle off the patrolman.
“Our thoughts are with him and his family and we are providing every support. A full investigation into the incident is under way.”
The Health and Safety Executive said they will be investigating.
