A 26-year-old woman is lucky to be alive in South Africa after a runaway truck whose driver was picking up his kid from school rolled down a hill, landed on her car and crushed it, according to reports.

Rochelle Velkers was driving her Opel Adam in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday afternoon when the truck, which had been parked near Parsons Hill Primary school, rolled down an embankment and flattened her car, according to HeraldLive.

When the truck driver returned from the school, he noticed it was no longer parked where he had left it, police Capt. Sandra Janse van Rensburg told the newspaper.

“He then noticed that the truck had rolled forward and collided with an Opel Adam that was travelling in Diaz Road towards CJ Langenhoven Drive,” she said.

Velkers, who remained stuck in her car for about 40 minutes, was taken to a hospital with multiple injuries, including fractures, officials said. No one else was in the car.

“The truck was squashing both her and her car. Parts of it had to be cut off in order to free her,” Shawn Herbst, a spokesman for ambulance company Netcare 911, told the BBC.

The truck driver, who has not been identified, is being investigated for reckless and negligent driving, police said.

Meanwhile, two men who rushed to the accident scene from the school to help the injured woman during her ordeal visited her at the hospital Wednesday.

An emotional Velkers began to cry when she saw Charlie Gillett, 71, Parsons Hill Primary School’s governing body chairman, and Principal Clinton Saddler.

“Thank you, Charlie, Thank you. You are my angel,” she said about Gillett, who had held her hand while she lay under the truck.

“I was in the school at the time and the workers were rushing to the accident,” Gillett said. “I rushed with them and saw the car under the truck. Initially, I thought it could have been an accident involving some of our kids.

“When I got there, I jumped down from the wall and climbed underneath the truck. At that stage, we all thought there could also be a child inside the vehicle,” he continued.

“I saw a hand and leg sticking out and started chatting with the driver of the car. She was very disoriented and I just kept telling her I am not leaving and we are going to get her out. I knew I had to keep her awake, every time I felt her dozing off I would squeeze her hand and carry on talking to her.”

He said he held Velkers’ hand for almost 45 minutes as rescuers worked to free her.

“The car was badly crushed. I could not see her face or anything,” Gillett said, adding that he checked if diesel fuel had spilled from the truck, risking an explosion.

“The fact she survived with fairly minor injuries is nothing short of amazing,” he said.

Saddler said he had been worried the truck would further crush the car.

“We were so worried it would drop. I checked with the driver and luckily the truck was not loaded,” the principal said. “Everyone kept telling Charlie to get out, but he refused.

“There was no way he was going to leave her. He kept telling her that he was going nowhere,” he added.