A vehicle recovery worker was airlifted to hospital in a serious condition after being crushed against a wall in an accident at a Keighley garage.

The 31-year-old man had been about to set off to recover a broken-down vehicle when his truck suddenly began rolling from its parked position, trapping him between the vehicle and the wall of German Breakers garage, off Dalton Lane.

Emergency services, including the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, paramedics, police and two fire engines, were called to the yard (pictured) to free the man just after noon yesterday.

Keighley fire station crew manager Gio Richetta, who arrived minutes after the accident, said the victim had been conscious but “severely injured”.

He was taken to Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) for treatment to a broken hip, police said.

Mr Richetta said: “From what we can gather from eye-witnesses, he was getting ready to go out on a call and he had got out of the cab, assuming that he had put the handbrake on.

“The wagon rolled and pinned him against the wall. It then carried on rolling and was stopped by a car parked in front, sufficiently far away for us to drag him from underneath it.”

Darroll Metcalfe, who was working in Dalton Lane at the time, said the man’s fellow workers had tried to free him.

He said: “He parked the wagon on a slope and jumped out and it has run over him. There was another lad with a fork-lift truck and he was trying to lift it off him.”

Paramedics gave the man morphine through a drip and placed him on a spinal board before he was taken away in the helicopter.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been informed of the accident. A spokesman said: “We can confirm that the HSE is aware of the incident. At this stage we are still making inquiries.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said the man remained in a stable condition in hospital last night.