TAMPA – As he crawled out of his rented SUV that had flipped three times after being hit from behind, Reggie Jackson made his way to the middle of road late Friday night.

His face was scraped and his body ached. Soon he would be at St. Joseph’s Hospital for multiple tests on his Hall of Fame body. But at the moment, Jackson was conversing with God.

“I was thanking God I could walk and talk,” Jackson said yesterday of the wreck that left Miguel Angel Rivera, the driver of the other car, in critical condition. “I figure the hand of God was with me. I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out how I wasn’t paralyzed. God had a hand on my shoulder, that’s why I was saved.”

Fortunately for Jackson, he had exchanged a Tauras for the SUV.

“If I had the Tauras, I don’t know if the roof would have held up,” said Jackson, who didn’t suffer any broken bones but was stiff and sore yesterday in his legs, chest, arms and neck. And he said his face looked like somebody dragged it across a bed of gravel.

“I went to where they brought the car to take pictures and the guy there said, ‘God must have more work for you to do.’ The car was totaled,” said Jackson, who was hospitalized for four hours.

Jackson, a special advisor to George Steinbrenner, was in camp as a guest instructor. He missed Saturday’s game in Lakeland and was at Legends Field for treatment on his neck yesterday. He will receive treatment today but won’t be in uniform.