'Guardian angel' photographed kneeling and 'praying' over man injured in car crash credited with saving his life by family

                           

The image of a pale, ghostly, perhaps angelic figure (above) can be seen (to some eyes, at least) kneeling over an unidentified man (blurred out) who had just been in an accident in Hone Path, South Carolina

The family of a man who survived a car wreck is convinced a guardian angel saved his life - and that there's photographic evidence of the divine intervention.

An Abbeville County, South Carolina man who was involved in a car crash on Highway 252 on Tuesday was able to crawl out of the totaled Ford Explorer window.

There, according to a pastor who witnessed the scene, the crash victim curled into the fetal position on the ground.

The pastor, Michael Clary, says that he was in 'prayer mode' asking God to save the man. He also took several photos of the scene.

Later, he says he noticed that one of the photos showed a 'guardian angel' kneeling near the man, praying. 

The white shape appears on the right side of the photo, hovering over the injured man.

While some commenters were quick to point out that the white mass was likely a reflection - the man's family takes comfort in the idea that their loved one indeed did receive the grace of a divine presence.

'You can see on the picture, on the right-hand side that the angel looks like he's actually knelt with his hands up praying over him,' Lynn Wooten, a cousin of the crash victim, told Fox Carolina. 

'If you was to see the car you would think nobody came out of it ... Our family strongly believes in guardian angels and that one with him. My cousin was lucky he survived.'

                      

The man, according to one eye witness, rolled his Ford Explorer four times before coming to rest in some trees

                                  

                                  

Angel watching over? The Abbeville County man rolled his SUV - above- and a pastor who came upon the scene said he stopped to get into 'prayer mode'

Clary, who took the photo but didn't post it on Facebook because of the man's injuries, did post others snaps he took of the scene. 

He wrote: 'This SUV passed me on hwy. 252 on my way back home from CVS in HP when it came around me it went to far left running off shoulder over corrected going sideways in front of me. 

'Started rolling over I counted four times before hitting ditch then going airborne hit about twelve feet against large pine. Wrapped around tree in air and I saw something come out passenger side window. When I got to where it was I was shocked to see a young man on ground curled in a ball the whole time this was happening I was in prayer mode asking God to protect this person. 

'After all emergency responders got there and he was airlifted I was still praying. Just a few mins. after I got home we got a report he has a broken leg and a cut on his ear, what a mighty prayer answering God we have thank you Lord for having me in the right place at the right time.'

According to Fox Carolina, Wooten said her unidentified cousin was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital where he was treated for a punctured lung and a broken collar bone and fractured ribs.

Some commenters were less than convinced that an angel was protecting the man, and chalked it up to human intervention.

Wrote one disbeliever on the Fox website: 'The reason he survived is the accident was that it was seen as it happened, 911 was called, and the EMTs and doctors did what they were trained to do. NOTHING MORE! You need to be thanking the real people who helped him survive.'