When Evelyn Johnson stopped today to check on the driver of a vehicle crashed into a pole, she pulled over because it was the right thing to do.

She had no idea the man she was about to help was Toledo's mayor.

Ms. Johnson was one of the first on the scene and performed emergency rescue measures on Mayor D. Michael Collins, who had a cardiac arrest while driving this afternoon.

Something about the scene didn’t look right, she said. Several cars drove past but Ms. Johnson, 42, who was driving the opposite way on Parkside Boulevard, pulled over, along with another man whose name she didn’t get.

They looked in the vehicle and saw a man, unconscious. His foot was still on the gas and the car was in drive. The engine was revving.

“It was just on my heart to turn around, turn around,” she said. “We were banging on the window but he didn’t respond.”

She called 911 responders, who told her to get Mayor Collins out of the vehicle. Ms. Johnson had a hammer in the trunk and she and the other man broke the rear driver’s side window of the mayor’s vehicle.

The pair alternated performing CPR until paramedics arrived 6 minutes later, she said. It was only then paramedics asked her: “Do you know this is the mayor?”

She didn’t.

“I would do this for anyone regardless of who it is,” she said. “I’ve been at work all day worrying if he is OK. I’m just thankful we were able to help him.”

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at: llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154 or on Twitter @lelindstrom.

First Published February 2, 2015, 2:20 a.m.