Son accidentally rolled SUV over Raeford mom

"The car had a certain way that it worked," Watson's father, Charles Watson, explained Friday. "I asked my daughter about it, and she said it has no key."

Melissa Watson left her son in the car while she went into Forever Young Child Care to talk to an employee. He thought he'd help his mom, get the car ready, Charles Watson said.

According to witnesses, when she saw that her son had started the car, Melissa Watson ran out to help him and ended up underneath the wheels. Rescuers say she saved her life by rolling into a dip in the parking lot.

On Friday, she was being treated at UNC Hospitals for serious internal injuries, Charles Watson said.

"She is in surgery right now," he said. "She has lacerations all the way down her back. She has lacerations on her head. I believe her hip is broken or fractured in a couple of places."

Charles Watson said he got the story of how the accident happened from the boy. 

"I couldn’t understand how her son got the car started," he said.

It took emergency personnel almost 45 minutes to get Melissa Watson free from under the car.

Her family has no timetable for her recovery, and so they wait. 

"We haven’t even been to where the accident even happened," Charles Watson said. "We’ve just been on the highway and then here in the hospital."

Melissa Watson had worked through the night before picking her son up at the child care facility. That child is worried, but fine, Charles Watson said. The single mom has another son who is being cared for by his father.