28 December 2023 , 11:56
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A truck driver survived for six days drinking rainwater over the Christmas period trapped in the mangled wreckage of his vehicle.
Matthew Reum, 27, was found pinned in his pickup truck underneath a bridge in northwest Indiana, US, by two fishermen looking for new spots to cast from.
The two men spotted the badly damaged vehicle, its white airbag deployed, and reached inside.
“They touched the body, and the person turned their head and started talking to them. So, that got a little rise out of them,” Sgt. Glen Fifield of the Indiana State Police told local news outlets.
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The wreckage coudn't be seen directly from the road (AP)
Emergency crews work amid the twisted wreck (AP)Mr Reum had to have part of his leg amputated due to his injuries, and remains in the intensive care unit. The truck went off Interstate 94 ahead of a bridge over Salt Creek, missing the guardrail and likely rolling several times before landing on the other side of the creek, hidden out of sight from the road above, Fifield said at a news conference.
Mr Reum, of Mishawaka, Indiana, was freed from the wreckage Tuesday evening by first responders working under bright floodlights, then airlifted to a hospital in South Bend with life-threatening injuries, Fifield said. “He made it through the night. He is alive,” Fifield told reporters. He said Mr Reum remained in critical condition Wednesday morning.
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South Bend Memorial Hospital released a statement on Reum’s behalf thanking people for their support and well wishes, “including the good Samaritans who found him, the first responders and his caregivers.”
“No matter how tough things get, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes in the least expected way,” Reum said in the statement.
Mario Garcia, one of the fishermen who found the wreck, said Reum was awake and “very happy to see us,” after being exposed to the elements since Dec. 20.
The car trapped beneath the bridge (AP)
Emergency crews work into the night to rescue the trapped man (AP)“It almost killed me there, because it was so shocking” to find him alive, Mr Garcia said during a Tuesday news conference in the nearby city of Portage, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.
Mr Garcia, of Hobart, said Mr Reum told them he had screamed and yelled for help but only heard the “quiet sound of water.” Reum told them his cell phone had fallen out of reach and his body was trapped, preventing him from calling for aid.
Fifield said Reum hadn’t been reported missing. He said Reum drank rainwater to survive his ordeal. “Had it not been for the two individuals that were walking the creek this afternoon, this incident more than likely would have had a different outcome,” Fifield said in a statement. Reum’s “will to survive this crash was nothing short of extraordinary.”