2 women survive after SUV falls 60 feet off bridge in N.J.

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- An SUV driver swerving to avoid striking another vehicle on a highway Friday hit a snowbank along a guardrail and catapulted 60 feet off a bridge. Incredibly, authorities say, the two occupants suffered only minor injuries, and the vehicle landed upright.

The Toyota Rav4 was headed east on Interstate 80 when the accident occurred at around 7:15 a.m. in Hackensack, police said.

The driver, 25-year-old Elizabeth Wolthoff, of Bergenfield, veered sideways after her vehicle was cut off, Police Director Michael Mordaga told The Record newspaper. The SUV then hit a snowbank that formed after plows had pushed excess snow up against the guardrail.

The SUV flew off the bridge and landed upright beneath the Hackensack River bridge, missing the river by about 40 feet. Wolthoff and her passenger, 23-year-old Rebecca Winslo, also of Bergenfield, called 911.

"The snowbank served almost as a ramp," Mordaga said. "They're very lucky the way the vehicle landed."

Firefighter Michael Thomasey, one of about 20 firefighters who responded to the accident, told the newspaper Winslo asked where she was and remembered the crash.

"I told her, 'You're in Hackensack. Don't worry. We're here. We'll get you out of the car,'" he said. "'Just sit tight. We're going to work for a few minutes. It's going to be noisy. We're going to get you out of here.'"

Firefighters used the Jaws of Life to remove the passenger-side door. They slid Winslo out feet-first and eventually pulled Wolthoff out from underneath the steering wheel, Thomasey said. Both women complained of neck and back pain and were taken to a hospital.

It took firefighters about 20 minutes to extricate the women from the SUV, the Record said.

"It's just shocking that you could fall that far in a car and be awake when everybody gets there, telling us what hurts," Thomasey said.

The Hackensack Fire Department posted images of the scene on its Facebook page: