A tow truck driver who was initially thought to be seriously injured Tuesday evening after a white Jaguar he was attempting to load onto his tow truck pinned him under the vehicle in Lakeland Plaza’s parking lot in Cumming is expected to be OK.

The man, who has not been identified, was transported to North Fulton Hospital by ambulance after an initial call for a Life Flight helicopter was cancelled, according to officials on scene.

While the exact cause of the incident is not known, a Northeast Georgia Medical Center interventional radiology specialist, Dave Crittenden, was on scene shortly afterward and performed a sternum rub (applied to patients who aren’t alert or don’t respond) on the man until first responders arrived.

“As I pulled into the parking lot to go to Sprouts, I heard a man yelling for help and slapping the ground,” Crittenden said. “I noticed the car had pinned him from the chest and head up and started talking to him, and he couldn’t breathe. He was talking, so he was getting some type of ventilation, so I attempted to lift the car a few times and told him to breathe, breathe.”

Crittenden added the man began going in and out of consciousness, which is when he performed the sternum rub.

“I tried several ways to stimulate him, one on his fingers, one on his abdomen, one on his chest,” he said. “I had 911 on the line within minutes of getting over there and trying to do that. They arrived and they had two pedestrians help me [remove the car] and they got him out.”

Sgt. Gary Clark with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said the man was beginning to regain consciousness as he left the scene, though he was seriously injured.

“Several individuals helped lift the car off of him,” Clark said, “[and] he was coming back into consciousness. We’ve got a lot of good citizens in this county; they see something going on and they [help.] We’ve got a positive community here – it’s one of a kind up here.”

Wayne Willard, owner of Willard Wrecker Service, who the victim works for, told the Forsyth County News his employee was released from the hospital several hours after the accident.

“He is perfectly fine with just some scratches and bruises,” Willard said. “He was back home from hospital after a few hours from arrival [and] he tried to come to work [Wednesday] but we told him to take a few days off. I [also] want to say thank you to all involved with helping our driver that was pinned.”