An eight-year-old Saskatchewan boy is being hailed as a hero, after driving a truck to get help when his father became trapped under some machinery.

"He pushed the seat up as far as he could," Don Amell told CBC News. "He drove before to help me haul bales."

But this time it was very different.

A combine makes it way through a field of wheat. (AP file photo)

"He'd never driven down the road."

The trouble started when James and his seven-year-old sister, Neely, were out with their father on July 6 in the area around Big Beaver, in the southeast corner of the province.

They'd gone to pick up a combine header, the part on the front of a combine that cuts crops.

The seven-metre-long piece of machinery was on a trailer that ended up with a flat tire, and when Amell stopped to fix it, the combine header slipped, pinning him underneath.

James and Neely tried to lift the machinery but couldn't.

"James, you're going to have to go for help," Amell told his son.

"I had no other choice," he told CBC News later.

"I asked him if he could do it and he said he could. I sent him on his way, having faith that he could find somebody."

James perched himself on the edge of the seat of the Dodge Ram 2500 so he could reach the pedals, and drove along the winding road to a neighbour's place.

Nobody was home.

James had no choice but to return to his father, who told him how to get to another farmhouse.

This time it worked. People were home and help was on the way.

They came back with James, bringing jacks and blocks with them. They were able to lift the machinery off Amell's leg and call for an ambulance.

Amell is recovering with a broken femur and other injuries. He has a rod in his leg from the pelvis to the knee. Parts of the combine header also punctured his leg.

Still, he considers himself lucky to be alive and thankful his children were there to save the day.

"It was a miracle is what it was," he said.