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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.
'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.