Disney Channel/Image Group LA(LOS ANGELES) —  While he spent his career playing tough guys on the big and small screen, Machete series star Danny Trejo showed his tender side Wednesday, when he crawled into a flipped-over car, and helped rescue a special needs child who was trapped inside. 

KABC-TV reports that Trejo, 75, happened to be in the area when two cars collided in Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon, after one car ran a red light and smashed into the one the child’s grandmother was driving, which rolled over from the impact.

Trejo crawled into the overturned wreckage from one side, but couldn’t unfasten the kid’s car set, which the actor said undoubtedly saved the boy’s life. Another good Samaritan crawled in from the other side and unlocked the buckles, allowing Trejo to pull the child to safety.

Meanwhile, firefighters had to use equipment to free the boy’s grandmother.

Trejo, who works with special needs children, said he kept the child distracted while the rescuers did their work. “I kept facing him away from the accident,” the actor and entrepreneur noted.

“He was panicked,” Trejo said, explaining how he got the boy out of the wreckage. “I said, ‘OK we have to use our superpowers.’ So he screamed ‘superpowers’ and we started yelling ‘superpowers.’ I said, ‘Do this, with the muscles.’ He said ‘muscles.'”

Neither occupants were seriously hurt.

Trejo summed up his actions to the ABC News affiliate, “Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. Everything. It’s how I live my life.”

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