Only On CBS13: Woman, 4 dogs rescued after crash leaves them trapped down embankment for 7 hours in Lassen County
SUSANVILLE — A Ukiah woman and her four dogs were rescued after being trapped for more than seven hours after crashing down an icy embankment in Lassen County.
"There was this truck with its high beams on and I could not see anything. I don't know what I hit. We slid across the ice, and went down backward and then flipped and then rolled," said Tina Milberger.
When Milberger's car finally came to a stop, she was more than a hundred feet down an embankment off of State Route 32 in freezing temperatures, frantic for help.
"It seemed like every time I looked up or moved my head in little seconds, I was shocked to be alive," she said.
She was alive but trapped and dangling from her seatbelt.
"As the car flipped and landed, I remember hearing a yelp, a yip," Milberger said.
That yip was Macho, her 40-pound Queensland heeler mix that was thrown from the car. But somehow, still nestled beside her, were Rachel, Tulip and Freya Jean, her three other dogs, which she curled up under her coat to stay warm.
"I was feeling so lonely and so distraught," Milberger said.
But then there was a sign of hope. Milberger could see flashlights over the ridge. It was Caltrans workers plowing snow who had noticed car tracks leaving the road. That's when Milberger started honking her horn.
"I heard men's voices yelling and then all of a sudden it stopped. The light went away," she said.
Seven hours after crashing, rescue teams moved in and used a rope to hoist her and her three dogs to safety.
"It's humanity at its best," Milberger said.
And that humanity was on display with Shannon Kenyon, another Caltrans employee. After learning Macho was missing, Kenyon started making daily stops at the crash site looking for him. And after three days, Macho was rescued, too.
"For a miserable experience and a horrific accident, the ending is great, Milberger said.
It was a miracle on the mountain with an assist that Milberger said can only be described as divine.
"It's like a life in a week with no strangers in it. Everybody was there for love," she said.
What's perhaps even more incredible about this story is that Milberger didn't break a single bone. She spent a day in a hospital where she was treated for a concussion, bruises and burn marks she got from hanging from that seat belt.