A good Samaritan who helped a woman change her flat tyre on the side of the road has received praise across social media.

Hilton Smith, 67, said he helped Shawnette Somner fix the flat on Harrington Sound Road in Hamilton Parish last week because he felt he had “no other choice”.

He explained: “It needed to be done, so I just said I would do it for her. There was no personal gain involved or anything like that – she needed help and I was available to give it to her.”

Mr Smith was speaking after Ms Somner’s Facebook post thanking him for his help received more than 1,200 likes in one week.

Ms Somner, an education officer for the Department of Corrections, said she was on her way to the prison farm in Ferry Reach, St George’s, when she “heard a ‘click’” inside her car at Shark Hole Hill in Hamilton Parish.

She said she parked her car at the Tucker’s Point Resort laundry and Mr Smith, who was helping with roadworks for Island Construction, told her that she had a flat tyre.

Ms Somner said: “I was actually going to pull over and call my dad – he’s Mr Fix It for the whole family – but before I could even stop my car, this gentleman saw me and just offered to help.

"He asked me to just pull over to the side and he very unassumingly just changed my tire.”

Ms Somner, from Warwick, said Mr Smith told her he had a wife of about 40 years and three adult daughters – two of whom she later learned she taught at the former St George’s Secondary School.

Ms Somner added that a close friend of her’s, Benjamin, also turned out to be Mr Smith’s brother.

She said: “He was just very friendly but also super calm and humble.

“I just got the impression that he was a good old-fashioned Bermudian family man – and that’s what I’m used to because that’s the Bermuda I grew up in.”

Ms Somner said she was grateful for Mr Smith’s generosity and gave him some cash for his help.

She added that the incident restored her “faith in humanity”.

Ms Somner said: “I’ve always tried to see the best in people, but I think we are living in a time where it’s come to ‘every man for himself’ because of the frustrations that everybody is experiencing.

“Because we’ve been away from people for so long we’ve kind of forgotten what it’s like to just be kind.”

Mr Smith, from Warwick, said: “You don’t see something like this happen often, but to be able to help somebody out is humane.

“We should all be a little more humane, a little more caring and a little more respectful – I think those ingredients would make the world spin a little bit better.”