A 30-year-old man was taken by helicopter to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with a “severe head injury” after his 54-year-old father likely suffered a seizure driving in North Suffolk Thursday.

About 11:17 a.m., Tyrell Martin, 45, of the Suburban Woods subdivision, was stretching while “getting my exercise on” when the accident unfolded before him.

Martin said he heard an engine revving before seeing a car crash through some bushes and glance off a light pole in front of the Kangaroo Express gas station at 1125 Wilroy Road.

The beige Buick sedan bounced over a low embankment, traveled an estimated 200 yards across a field, then came to rest in a swampy outlying section of the Nansemond River, about 125 feet down a ravine and into the woods.

The out-of-control car jumped four curbs, including on both sides of Cassidy Court, and was only kept from continuing into the water by a fallen tree.

Martin said he sprinted across the field and down to the Buick before doing what he could to help the victims maintain consciousness.

“I kept asking them questions and communicating with them and asked a store person (at the Kangaroo Express) to call 911,” he said.

“I just stood with the two gentlemen, communicated with them, and made sure they were all right until police arrived.”

Martin’s first thought was that the car was simply out of control, but “when I saw him bearing straight through and (with) his foot still on the gas pedal, I thought he’d probably had a heart attack with his foot still on the pedal.”

Both victims had gashes to the face and various lacerations, he said, adding that the younger victim had a serious gash to the forehead, “and I had to keep him alert” so that he would maintain consciousness.

“The tree line stopped them from going into the water,” Martin said. “If it wasn’t for that, I would have been all up in the water. I would have had to go in there and pull them up out of there. It would have been much worse.”

According to the police crash report, a female family member said the driver, Ronald Turner Sr., is known to have seizures.

He was taken to Norfolk General by ground ambulance, while his son, Ronald Turner Jr., who is believed to have been extracted from the wreck first, was airlifted to the hospital by Nightingale.

Late Thursday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman confirmed both patients were in the emergency department. She declined to comment on their injuries or condition.