CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A crash sent a car down a 40-foot embankment in northeast Charlotte early Friday.

Police said a sport utility vehicle hit the car on W.T. Harris Boulevard at Chancellor Park Drive around 3 a.m.

The driver of the car is paraplegic and couldn't climb out, but a driver passing by called 911 and another stopped his car and ran to the rescue.

Keith Lyons said when he pulled up and saw the wrecked SUV, it baffled him.

“I looked around. I didn't see no poles. So my next instinct was to see what she hit,” he said.

Then he saw the second car.

“I just happened to see brake lights, jumped in and saw what I could do,” Lyons said.

Emergency workers said on the phone not to move the driver, but Lyons thought twice when the driver in the Cadillac revealed he was disabled.

"That's when I got concerned -- when he told me he was handicapped I got concerned and I jumped on in," Lyons said.

He gave the man emotional support and comforted him for a few minutes. Then rescuers arrived and used ropes to pull the driver to safety.

"I was doing what any dog-gone citizen would do," Lyons said.

Both drivers went to a local hospital with neck and back injuries. The disabled man was released, but the woman who was driving the SUV remains in the hospital in good condition.

Police are still investigating and have not said whether anyone will be charged.