Actor Danny Trejo is famous for playing villains and anti-heroes in action movies. He played a real-life hero Wednesday, springing into action to help rescue a young special-needs child trapped in an overturned car at a Los Angeles intersection.
Trejo, best known for playing Machete in the "Spy Kids" series, was present when two cars collided, KABC reported. One of the vehicles was overturned and a young boy was trapped inside, strapped into a car seat.
"There was a baby inside and a grandma," Trejo, 75, told KABC. "And the only thing that saved that little kid was his car seat, honest to God."
Trejo said he crawled into the car but was unable to unbuckle the child, according to the television station. He said a woman, identified as Monica Jackson, helped by unbuckling the child, and the two of them pulled the boy to safety, CNN reported.
"A young lady had to crawl through the window because I couldn't get the baby out — I couldn't unbuckle the seat belt," Trejo told KTLA. "She got in and undid the seat belt, I pulled the baby out the other side."
Trejo, who said he works with special-needs children, said he distracted the boy while firefighters worked to free his grandmother from the front seat.
"He was panicked. I said, 'OK we have to use our superpowers.' So he screamed 'superpowers,' and we started yelling 'superpowers.'" Trejo told KABC "I said, 'Do this,' with the muscles. He said 'muscles.'"
"We got kind of a bond. I kept facing him away from the accident."
Officials with the Los Angeles Fire Department said three people were taken to an area hospital but there were no life-threatening injuries, KABC reported. The cause of the accident is under investigation, the television station reported.
"Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else," Trejo told KABC. "Everything."
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