A mother of three was rescued after surviving six days trapped in a wrecked car in Indiana, authorities said.
Johnny Martinez was operating equipment for a drainage and excavation company on Tuesday when he spied a car tucked out of view off the roadway. He called his supervisor, Jeremy Vanderwall, who is also an assistant chief at a volunteer fire department, according to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office.
The pair went together to check out the car and discovered 41-year-old Brieonna Cassell inside, ABC News reported, citing the sheriff’s office.
“She was very conscious, very alert, very aware of how severe her injuries were,” Vanderwall told ABC News. “She said, ‘I didn’t think anybody was gonna find me. I thought I was gonna die in this ditch.”
Cassell had fallen asleep at the wheel on Thursday night and driven off the road into a deep ditch under a bridge, her father Delmar Caldwell said. He said she tried screaming at passing cars, but no one could see or hear her.
“She was stuck in the car and could not get out. But she was able to reach the water from the car,” Caldwell said. “The only way she was able to survive was using her hoodie and dipping it into the water in a ditch and sucking the water, or bringing the water into her mouth from the ditch.”
Vanderwall credited Cassell’s “survival skills,” using her shirt to retrieve water, “knowing that she had to have water to survive.”
Her father said she had “given up hope of being found” by Tuesday morning, and “then, by the grace of God and the prayers and everything, she was found.” He noted that his daughter’s phone was dead under the passenger seat and she had suffered serious injuries to her legs and wrist.
“Everybody that helped to find her and the volunteers and everything … it was a wonderful miracle,” Caldwell said.
Cassell was flown to a hospital in Chicago, where she is in serious condition, according to the report. Her father said she is in “good spirits” and is “eating a lot.”
Newton County Sheriff Shannon Cothran commended Cassell’s survival as an “incredible testament to her will to live.” He also praised Johnny Martinez, the passerby who found her car, calling him a “hero.”
Vanderwall said Martinez was able to see Cassell’s car because he was operating a tall tractor. Caldwell said Martinez recognized his daughter when he discovered her because her missing person report was posted all around the area.
“If he hadn’t seen her and hadn’t pushed for me to go back and check on her, she could have laid there for who knows how much longer, and the outcome might not be the same,” Vanderwall said.
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