NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Strangers used their combined strength Friday to lift a car off a hit-and-run victim who had found himself pinned in the Bruckner section of the Bronx.

As CBS2’s Matt Kozar reported exclusively, the driver remained on the loose Friday night.

It took seven people to lift the car off the man stuck underneath it. Witnesses said the 69-year-old man had been dragged down a Bronx street, and his clothes were left tattered and ripped.

Orlando Urena, 73, was one of the Good Samaritans who rushed over to the car, but could not lift it on his own. So he yelled for others to help.

Urena said he thought the man underneath the tire was dead. But somehow, he survived.

Cellphone video showed paramedics putting a neck brace on the victim, who police have not identified.

Investigators said he is in critical, but stable, condition at Jacobi Medical Center.

Witnesses said the car hit the man as he was walking in this crosswalk at Boynton Avenue and Westchester avenues around 11 a.m. Friday. They said the car dragged him about a quarter of a mile down the block.

But instead of stopping, the driver kept going and then bailed from the car, witnesses said.

Ahmed Muhammad runs a food cart on the corner, and said he saw the whole thing.

“This half of your body is inside the car, and the head and this part is outside. And then the car takes him,” Muhammad said.

Witnesses watched as the driver took off running. Some chased him, but he got away.

Urena said in Spanish that he did not get a good look at the driver, who police said remained on the loose late Friday.