Two Oregon teens saved their father's life by lifting a
3,000-pound tractor off of him after the machinery flipped over and
pinned him to the ground.
Jeff Smith of Lebanon, Ore., said he was trying to pull a
tree stump out of his garden when his boot slipped off the clutch
and the tractor flipped on top of him, with the steering wheel
pinning his chest to the ground. He immediately began screaming for
help.
'It was scary because it was on my chest [and] every time I
called out for help it was like a constrictor,' Smith explained to
Portland NBC
His daughters, 16-year-old
Hannah and 14-year-old Haylee, were walking their family dogs
nearby when they heard his screams.
They followed his shouts and
found him in his garden.
'He was just laying in the
dirt underneath the tractor and he was screaming,' Hannah
said.
The girls ran to his side and
immediately began trying to lift the tractor off of
him.
Hannah said she was thinking,
'This is really heavy but I need to get it off of him.'
Meanwhile, Haylee was praying
she could find the strenght to save her father.
'I was saying, "God help me"
over and over because I knew, obviously, I could not lift it by
myself,' she said.
The girls were able to lift
the tractor just high enough so that he could slight his torso out
from underneath and breathe.
'It’s amazing. You hear about
this kind of stuff — this adrenaline rush, being able to pick cars
up and slide people out,' Smith told KGW. 'You never realize it’s
really there until you actually witness it.'
Smith's arm was still pinned
beneath the tractor so they called neighbor to bring his own
tractor and use its shovel to finish freeing him.
Smith was treated at the
hospital for a broken wrist and other minor
injuries.
Hannah said she called her
mother before the ambulance ride and that she was convinced it was
an April Fool's joke.
'I just can’t believe it
happened, honestly,' Hannah told the Albany Democrat-Herald. 'We
were supposed to go to a friend’s house. I don’t know why we
didn’t.'