Nov. 18, 2021 — First responders expected the worst when they arrived at a wreck scene on I-5 in Washington state.
A tractor trailer rear-ended a 2015 Nissan Altima Tuesday afternoon on the Skagit River Bridge near Mount Vernon. The impact folded the car in half and left it flattened underneath the truck’s wheels.
“There’s no way, no way somebody survived that,” said witness Mike DeWitt, according to TV station KTRK.
But an officer got a surprise when he approached the wreck, state trooper Rocky Oliphant said.
“He walked up, he walked around the car and he heard, ‘Help!’ and he said, ‘Oh my goodness,'” Oliphant said.
A tow truck lifted the front wheels of the tractor-trailer off the car and the 46-year-old woman who’d been driving crawled out of a gap where the passenger window used to be.
She walked away from the mangled car under her own power, KRTK reported
“There’s really not a word to describe this collision,” Oliphant tweeted. “Miraculously believed to be minor injuries. The car was struck from behind, folded the car in half, and semi came to rest on top of the car. In my 14-year career, I have never seen anything like it.”
The woman only had pain in her head and ribs, troopers said. The driver of the semi was cited for following too closely.