Superdaughter Lifts 5,600-Pound Jeep off Dad
A man who was pinned under a nearly 3-ton SUV while working on its brakes last weekend was saved by his daughter, who summoned enough superhuman strength to lift the truck off him.
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"I don't know what I would have done without her," Adam Simmons of Plymouth, Massachusetts told Yahoo! Shine, referring to his daughter Rachael. "She never even thought twice about it. She was on fire."
More on Yahoo!: Woman Lifts Car Off Her Father, Saves His Life
Adam had been replacing the brake pads on Rachael's Jeep Liberty in the driveway of their home, when the jack and two jack stands holding up the vehicle collapsed, pinning Adam's left leg under the rusty brake rotor. "I just didn't even see it coming and it crashed right onto me," he said. Adam began screaming for help but he wasn't sure anyone would hear him—his wife and daughter were inside the house with several air conditioners running.
Luckily, Rachael, ran to his side after about a minute and a half, which "felt like forever," said Adam. "She just grabbed hold of the car and I slid my leg out. I was shaking. I was afraid to look at it, honestly."
Rachael Simmons, 22, told WBZ CBS Boston, “I ran out of the house and I saw him under my car. 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.”
When paramedics arrived, they thought his leg was broken, and prepared a trauma team with surgeons to for their arrival, according to Adam. Incredibly, his wounds turned out to be only cuts and bruises. "They were amazed," he said.
SUVs, like the one Rachael lifted, aren't exactly lightweight. The 2012 Jeep Liberty clocks in at around 5,600 pounds when completely empty, according to Motortrend.com. For now, Adam is recovering but sore, walking with crutches and "so very grateful" that he's not as injured as he was after a bike accident 25 years ago, which 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 the back strain she experienced once the adrenaline wore off.
Cases of people finding super-human, or “hysterical” strength in times of panic have been documented. In 2012, a pair of teen sisters in Oregon saved their father by lifting a 3,000-pound overturned tractor off him. That same year, a 22-year-old Virginia woman hoisted a car off her father after a jack that held up the car gave way while he was working on it.
And in 2011, 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 was 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 told the Tampa Bay Timest. “I don't know how, but somebody pulled him from the car."
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