A truck driver in Indiana is lucky to be alive this week after he spent six days in his wrecked truck beneath a freeway bridge.
Matthew R. Reum spent almost a week trapped beneath a bridge on I-94 crossing over Salt Creek near the city of Portage, Indiana. Rescue came in the form of two curious fishermen who spotted something shiny under the bridge while scouting fishing holes, CNN reports:
Mario Garcia and his son-in-law Nivardo Delatorre were scouting Salt Creek near the northwestern Indiana city of Portage for potential fishing holes and getting ready to call it a day when something shiny in the distance caught their attention, Garcia said at a news conference held by state police. Curious, they went to explore it and realized it was a vehicle wreck.
The wrecked pickup truck was under Interstate 94’s bridge over the creek. Garcia moved an airbag out of the way and saw what he thought was someone dead in the driver’s seat.
“The moment I touched the shoulder, he swung around – he woke up,” Garcia said.
Startled, but focused on helping the young man, Garcia asked Delatorre to call for help and the pair stayed with the man until rescuers came to pull him out.
“He was alive and he was very happy to see us,” Garcia said, recalling the man thanking them repeatedly. “I’ve never seen relief like that.”
What a relief it must have been. Reum suffered severe, potentially life threatening injuries in the crash. He screamed for help, but no help came, so he survived on drinking rain water in near freezing conditions. Police told CNN that it’s a miracle Reum survived the December 20 crash, let alone was found before the worst could happen:
Police said they received no reports of a crash and even if they did, the wreckage couldn’t be seen from the bridge.
“I looked over that bridge and you can’t see it,” Fifield said. “I walked down on the east side of the terrain and I am looking and I still couldn’t see it.”
There is no information on what initially caused Reum to crash, however police think his truck missed the guardrail and sailed through the air before landing under the bridge.