Family Discovers Woman Stranded Down Embankment Following Car Crash
MODESTO (CBS13) — A Modesto woman is recovering after she was discovered stranded inside her crashed car down a 50-foot embankment near Oakdale.
Her vehicle was also partially submerged in water. A family driving along the roadway first spotted the vehicle far off the road and initially suspected it was abandoned, then stopped and discovered the woman inside, and called 911.
Mom Alisa Ward calls it a miracle from heaven.
"I just think that it was kind of a divine appointment," Ward said.
Her teenage boys Reagan and Jackson say it was "unreal."
It is a remarkable story the family will never forget.
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"I just couldn't believe that someone was actually in that car," Alisa Ward said. "It was shocking!"
From a drive in their own minivan, somehow they spotted the car far from the road. Jackson Ward, 16, got out first and yelled down to the vehicle. A voice answered back.
"And then she was like, 'oh my gosh, help me, I'm stuck,'" Jackson Ward said.
The Ward family says the woman inside told them she had crashed and lost consciousness. She asked someone to hold her hand.
"We could tell that she was scared," Alisa Ward said.
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"I would imagine that being there, for who knows how long, being there for hours, you get to the point that no one's going to find me and I'm just going to die down there," Jackson Ward said.
The family called 911 and first responders arrived to perform the rescue.
"We stayed the whole time and watched, and made sure that she was okay when she came out," Alisa Ward said.
The woman rescued was taken to the hospital by ambulance. The Ward family said they hope to meet with her once she is fully recovered.