Police in Indiana say a man was rescued after being trapped for six days in his crashed pickup truck and drinking rainwater to survive.
His ordeal ended when two men scouting for fishing spots Tuesday afternoon noticed the badly damaged vehicle, its white airbag deployed, and reached inside.
“They touched the body, and the person turned their head and started talking to them. So, that got a little rise out of them,” Sgt. Glen Fifield of the Indiana State Police told local news outlets.
The truck went off Interstate 94 ahead of a bridge over Salt Creek, missing the guardrail and likely rolling several times before landing on the other side of the creek, hidden out of sight from the road above, Fifield said at a news conference.
Matthew R. Reum, of Mishawaka, Indiana, was freed from the wreckage Tuesday evening by first responders working under bright floodlights, then airlifted to a hospital in South Bend with life-threatening injuries, Fifield said.
“He made it through the night. He is alive,” Fifield told The Associated Press. He said Reum remained in critical condition Wednesday morning.
South Bend Memorial Hospital released a statement on Reum’s behalf thanking people for their support and well wishes, “including the good Samaritans who found him, the first responders and his caregivers.”
“No matter how tough things get, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes in the least expected way,” Reum said in the statement.
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