Hero lifts car off injured woman

"I'm no hero, I just did what I had to do," says truck driver Valur Stefánsson who managed to lift a car off a woman trapped underneath it following a terrifying road accident near Höfn in East Iceland. 

Stefánsson was driving from Egilstaðir towards Reykjavik on Thursday night when he saw a car appear in the rearview mirror. He slowed down and indicated for the car to pass. But the car passing span out of control on loose gravel and ended up flipping mid-air and overturning on the side of the road.  "The car was probably driving at 100 km per hour. There was a rock next to the road, the car hit the rock and then literally flipped mid-air. I'm sure that if they hadn't been wearing seatbelts they would have been thrown out of it. It was a terrifying sight. The car literally flew dozens of metres. " Stefánsson immediately pulled over and called emergency services and then ran to the car. "A girl came towards me, she was the least injured of all the passengers. I thought I was about to witness a very serious accident but seeing as everyone was wearing seatbelts that saved their lives."

However, the driver of the car, a woman, ended up halfway outside of the car and the car was on top of her chest. "I heard her mumbling so I knew she was conscious. So i put my back towards the car and pushed it up while the girl pulled her out. I held the car up while this was going on. She wouldn't have survived long with the weight of the car on top of her chest." Another man was trapped inside the car and rescuers had to get him out with metal clippers. 

The driver and both passengers were taken by helicopter to the National University Hospital. The woman had a broken collarbone and various other injuries and is recovering in hospital and the passengers escaped with minor injuries. According to police it's clear that seatbelts saved their lives.