BUTLER, Ohio (WJW) — A Clear Fork Colts High School football player jumped into action and somehow found superhuman strength to save his neighbor’s life.
Zac Clark, 16, was doing yard work with his mother, Lora Clark, this past Saturday at their home in Butler when they suddenly heard their neighbors’ wife calling for help. They saw her husband pinned beneath their car.
“Without even hesitation, he darted, like sprinted over to the house,” Lora said.
“I guess the jack broke or slipped and the car fell on top of him from the waist up,” Zac said. “Only thing I could see was his legs and he was struggling.”
The 39-year-old father asked not to be identified. He told WJW he usually uses braces, but wasn’t that day and the bumper was crushing his chest with another part of the car pushing down on his head.
Whether it was adrenaline or something else, Zac positioned his forearms underneath the 3,000-pound car and lifted it off of the man, saving his life.
“He had a couple of cracked ribs and his face was messed up pretty bad, but the doctors told him if I wasn’t there then he’d be dead,” Zac said. “I just thank God for putting me in the position and giving me the strength to do that.”
Colts head football coach Dave Carroll said he was amazed when Zac called him, but not surprised because the teen is always helping others and wants to become a firefighter when he graduates.
“Why it doesn’t surprise me that he did this, he has just a huge heart,” Carroll said. “Here’s a young man who’s been through tragedy himself with his father passing away last summer and he didn’t hesitate at all and saved somebody’s life.”
Zac said he still isn’t exactly sure how he lifted the car, but he was thinking of deceased father at the time.
“I wanted to be able to save him to be with his family,” Zac said.
Now the man is recovering at home with his family thanks to Zac.