Confession of a father rescued with his son from a crushed car: I didn't believe I would survive

(Patria) - Josip and Leon Hodak, the father and son whose embrace after a dramatic rescue from a crushed car in Petrinja touched the whole world, are well, but unfortunately, they did not spend New Year's Eve together, writes Croatian Radio Television.

Josip Hodak is currently undergoing treatment at the KBC Rebro in Zagreb, where his broken ribs are being treated.

I saw pictures of the car and what it looks like, I don't realize we managed to survive that. I would like to thank first of all everyone in Petrinja who came to help us. Firefighters and everyone who pulled us out so quickly, thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything from me and my Leon – Josip Hodak told Dnevnik HTV.

He said he was going with his four-year-old son Leon to check the situation in the city and what was happening with the building where his wife inherited an apartment. The earthquake trapped them in the car.

I just turned towards the child and lay down, pulled him close to me and lay over him. It squeezed us, I couldn't get air, he says.

Leon is fine, he is with his mother at relatives' in Zagreb. Thirty-five-year-old Josip will join them as soon as he leaves the hospital.

On the right side, I have broken ribs from the fifth to the tenth, on the left from the ninth to the eleventh, says Josip.

His hospital roommate, postman Siniša from Petrinja, also has broken ribs. His car was buried by the rubble of a school building.

I didn't believe I would survive. The first thought was, why me, the second was this is the end, says Siniša Kadečka.

Architect Vladimir, who was inspecting the attic of an old house in Petrinja with colleagues, fortunately avoided the end.

It rumbled. We thought it would pass because the second impact is always weaker than the first, however, this did not stop. It shook and shook… And then everything started to collapse on us. It buried us nicely, says Vladimir Ževrnja.

If they weren't injured, he says, they would be in the field today. Because courage, humanity, and selflessness know no bounds this time either.