Indiana state police are praising the discovery of a 27-year-old man who had been struggling for his life alone in a wrecked vehicle, which two curious fishermen discovered on Tuesday, December 26, after seeing something shiny along a stream.
Curiosity Leads to Miraculous Rescue
At a press conference hosted by the state police, Mario Garcia said that he and his son-in-law, Nivardo Delatorre, had been fishing in Salt Creek, close to the city of Portage in northwest Indiana, when they saw something shining in the distance and decided to stop for the day. Inquisitive, they ventured to investigate, only to find that it was a wrecked truck.
Over the stream, beneath the bridge of Interstate 94, lay the damaged pickup vehicle. Once Garcia cleared the airbag, he peered over the shoulder of the driver and saw what seemed to be a lifeless body. Garcia said that as soon as he put his hand on the driver's shoulder, the man turned around and awakened himself.
Garcia startled but intent on helping the man, requested Delatorre to get assistance. The two remained at the man's side until rescuers arrived to remove him. According to Garcia, the guy thanked them many times, indicating that he was alive and pleased to see them.
In a report by CNN, Indiana State Police Sergeant Glen Fifield said during the press conference that the victim, Matthew Reum, from Mishawaka, may have been there for up to seven days and had serious, potentially fatal injuries.
The state police said that Reum was able to live in part by drinking rainwater. "The will to survive this crash was nothing short of extraordinary," police stated.
Fifield added, "It's a miracle that he's alive in this weather." The accident occurred in Porter County when the temperature dropped to 29 degrees only days before.
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Time of the Accident
Based on what Garcia has learned, the Reum informed them that he had been confined to his seat inside the wrecked vehicle since December 20 and was unable to use his phone.
"He says he tried yelling and screaming, but nobody would hear him. It was just quiet - just the sound of the water ... He said to me that he's been there for a long time that he had almost lost all hope because nobody was there," Garcia recalled.
Upon his injuries were assessed, Reum was reportedly sent to a hospital on Tuesday. The exact reason for the incident remains unknown. However, Fifield said it seemed that the man's vehicle veered off I-94, failed to hit the railing, went airborne, and eventually came to a stop beneath the bridge. The truck spun around many times as it plunged into the stream, NBC News reported.
No one reported an accident to the police, and even if someone had, they would not have been able to see the debris from the bridge, according to the authorities.
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