Pretty amazing story--strong survival will

Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Marguerite53

Premium Level User
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
3,635
Location
Oregon
From THE OREGONIAN by Peter Farrell. Monday, March 28, 2005
'Please let them be coming for me'
The SUV driver who plunged from the Morrison Bridge recounts escaping the Willamette's dark depths and floating as onlookers cheered and sirens wailed
"You're in a car going off a bridge -- you think you're done," Melissa Borgaard said Sunday. But at least 55 feet deep in the Willamette River, she began to think she might survive her 60-foot fall from the Morrison Bridge in downtown Portland. She struggled to release her seat belt and got to the water's surface. She could hear cheers from a crowd along the river wall. Floating on her back in the fast current to save energy, she also heard sirens. "They've got to be coming for me," she told herself. "Please let them be coming for me."
They were.
People were amazed she survived Saturday and surprised that by Sunday -- bruised and scratched and hurting but not seriously injured -- she walked out of OHSU Hospital. No one was more surprised than Borgaard, 31, that she kept her wits in what was, even in a city of bridges, a spectacular event. The legal secretary talked about her fears and near-drowning Sunday, both to thank her rescuers and to tell the world she is a good driver who was aware of the traffic around her, was not speeding, was alone in the car and was not distracted by talking to her sister, Alicia, on her hands-free phone about dinner plans as she drove to a downtown hair appointment. "It was no different than if she had been sitting next to me," she said. Alicia heard her cry "Oh! Oh!" before the phone went dead. She knew something had happened but didn't know where. She started tracking Melissa's movements to find her.
By then, Melissa was underwater.
The bridge surface's wet grating had felt as if she were driving on ice, she said. As she began to slide and quickly steered to avoid a nearby car, she overcorrected. Then she felt as if she had been launched from a slingshot. "There wasn't anything I could do,"she said, as the back end of her SUV swung around and sent her flying. She first crashed through the bridge safety railing. That impact probably smashed her windshield. If it hadn't, she suspects she would have died, trapped in her car. Her air bag deployed as she went off the bridge, blocking her view as she fell toward the water. "I couldn't see, so maybe it wasn't as scary as it could have been." She knew she was going off the bridge but had no way to time a last breath before she hit. Her car quickly sank to the river bottom, and darkness closed in faster than she could believe. The Vancouver woman decided she was not meant to die after all. "I struggled a little bit with my seat belt, and I thought, 'This can't be it,' " she said. "I thought, 'OK, where am I at? I need to figure out where my seat belt is.' " She felt for her door handle and located her belt release, not thinking that she wouldn't be able to open her door against the pressure of the river's water.
The car filled almost instantly. "By the time I got out of my seat belt," she said, "I was already sort of floating upward," apparently through the smashed-out windshield. She saw light through the dark, dirty water she was trying not to swallow, then more light. "Finally, I popped up."
She heard people cheering from the river bank, where several people with cell phones had called 9-1-1 seconds after Borgaard went off the bridge. She could not hear any of the people who were yelling for her to stop swimming and to float on her back. But she soon decided that was all she could do. "I tried to tread water for a couple of minutes, but I was just so tired," she said. "I don't know whether it was from struggling trying to get out (of the SUV) or not being able to breathe, or the temperature of the water or what, but I was exhausted and couldn't breathe, and I just floated on my back." Rich Tyler, a dive team rescue swimmer stationed at the Portland Fire Bureau's main station a few blocks away, was lowered down the 20-foot bank and swam about 100 yards to get Borgaard on a Multnomah County sheriff's boat that also came to the rescue. "I really appreciated his effort," Borgaard said. "I don't think I was ever shaken so bad in my life." Marine deputies from the sheriff's office and the Fire Bureau dive team will meet this week to decide about raising the car, which they may use for a training session. After what she had been through, Borgaard said, she wasn't too worried about the car.
 
Marguerite,
Yes, she had a strong sense of survival, but she also had an amazing amount of luck. I don't know about the Willamette's current, but if she had landed in our Mississippi River, I don't think she would have survived the strong current.

I hope the bridge engineers exam the railings to see if they need to be reinforced or replaced. It's scary to think a car would go through them that easily.

Yuck!
 
Ross (and others) - there's a place for SUV's. I live at the end of a dirt road in the desert, and in the winter you often can't get to where I live without 4 wheel drive. In fact, last winter a neighbor of mine managed to get stuck in the mud flats even with four wheel drive and I had to pull him out!

What I don't understand is why city folks have SUV's. When I go into Reno I see lotsa folks driving giant Hummers - yet I have never seen a Hummer out in the desert where one would make sense. And a couple of years ago I had the misfortune to go back to Los Angeles for a few days (I grew up there back when it was a decent place to live and dinosaurs ruled the earth), and was astonished to see so many SUV's on the freeways.

Regarding curves, yeah, a lot of folks seem to be very unclear on the concept that a high-clearance vehicle with a short wheelbase is inherently tippy and you gotta slow down. Sheesh! An entire generation of VW beetle- and bus-driving hippies learned that one!

And regarding ice, a lot of folks are equally unclear on the concept that four wheel drive does absolutely nothing for you on ice and that you simply gotta slow down.
 
suv's etc.

suv's etc.

Barry. I suppose that there is a place for SUV's, somewhere. I guess that bridge was not one of them! It was not icy. Very rainy. Because we have older bridges, several draw bridges, there is metal grating. When you hit that metal, the tires often tweak around in all vehicles. She claims that she started to swerve into a car and then overcorrected and plowed through the rail. She claims she was not distracted by the conversation she was having over her hands-free cell phone with her sister. I suspect it was more the cell phone than the bridge. She's undoubtedly been over that bridge a zillion times (we all have, here in the metro area -- the river cuts the city in half -- we have 8 automobile bridges just in the heart of the city).

Here is a link to a photo of the opened bridge (can't seem to copy the photo into the text, here. Blonde moment) http://www.portlandbridges.com/viewphotosall-D300CRW00686-13-cat-1-0.html

For us, it will be interesting to see who is at fault. The car remains at the bottom of the river right now. I wonder what shape her tires were in.

Marguerite
 
Marguerite??

Marguerite??

Marguerite..

Did she make the swim up from the bottom of the river...all 55 feet to the surface? What a lung capacity she must have if she did.

I can tell you from an experience of being a "swimmer" off a whitewater raft on the American River in N. CA, that the water is very cold and you're but a mere dishrag out there trying to swim in a fast current with waves. The cold saps all your energy. Luckily I was picked up by a raft downstream. BTW, "swimmer" is someone who gets thrown out of the raft.. :eek:
 
Hey now Ross, I have 2 SUV's, a honda and a jeep wrangler. Both are used in the city, neither are used for offroading. I am smart enough to know that you have to slow down to take corners and on ice though. The only thing the 4x4 is going to help you with is the mud and snow. It does nothing to help you stop on ice.

That is a pretty amazing story though, thanks for posting it!
 
Hey Gang....There Sure Is A Place For SUV'S....

Hey Gang....There Sure Is A Place For SUV'S....

I bought a 2005 Jeep Liberty in December, and I have found that it is just what I need with my CHF, and all my other lovely medical travesties. I don't have to shovel to get out, just put it in low 4 wheel drive and I am out. Not only that, but because of all the chronic pain that I am in, the jeep is at the right height for me to get in and out easily without having to scooch down. Downright awesome vehicle, and I would buy another one in a heart beat...No Pun Intended...LOL :D :D :D Harrybaby666
 
Like I said...

Like I said...

Yes, Harry, there are good reasons to have them. I'm honestly glad that you can ride comfortably. But for others, if they can afford to fill some of those monster gas tanks, all the power to them, I guess. Hope they've got some idea of how the generations coming up are going to get around, (or even breathe) since these behemoths are gobbling up all the gasoline. Me, I drive a slow, low, fuel efficient, mean machine. I like maneuverability. AND, staying ON the bridge!! Somehow, with 3 kids growing up we never needed the massive space to get to soccer and basketball and lacrosse and volleyball games. (not to mention not needing a DVD player -- destructive excess -- can't children look out the window and have civilized conversation ????????) Somehow, living above 500 feet, where the snow always hits if it's going to, we'd put on studded tires (okay, probably another can of worms) and smile at all the SUV's in the ditch. I think what irks me the most are the Hummers. I think they should be illegal. They are like tanks. They have no business on the open highway.

Yes, the car went all the way to the bottom before she got out, she thinks. 55 feet of murky dark river, and she swam to the top. This, after having plumetted 60 feet off the bridge in the first place! Some who scuba dive have wondered if her ears weren't killing her! I suspect she hadn't time to notice!

There were so many people who dialed 911 (they are broadcasting several of the phone calls now on the news) that a rescue boat and diver were not long in coming. Crowds had gathered and were cheering wildly when she popped up -- urging her to float on her back.

Nice to have a good ending to this story. I suspect she'll feel somewhat "reborn" as many of you valvers do (and I will, someday!)

:) Marguerite
 
Back
Top