An incredible twist of fate may have been responsible for saving a Utah woman’s life after she fell through the ice and into the freezing cold water of Mantua Reservoir Sunday.
The Utah Highway Patrol says a 32-year-old woman was walking her two dogs Sunday morning around 9 a.m when they fell through the thin ice and became trapped. Police say the woman became trapped herself when she ventured onto the thin ice to try and rescue them.
“She was about 100 to 150 feet from shore, struggling to get out of the water, trying to climb up on the ice that kept breaking and she’d fall back in,” Utah State Trooper Joshua Carr, who would eventually assist in her rescue, told KUTV News in Utah.
But before he could arrive, random chance or serendipitous fate would lend a hand.
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That’s because Brigham City public works employee Thomas Braithwaite was doing his rounds of the springs and dykes in Mantua Reservoir when he spotted the woman and her dogs.
The remarkable part is that Braithwaite usually conducts his rounds much earlier in the day, but told KSL News that he “slept in” that morning, and as a result came onto the scene later than he would have – and just in time to spot the trapped woman and call 911.
Police officer Brad Nelson was the first to arrive on scene, and tried to rescue the woman by throwing her a rope. When it came up short, he was forced to venture onto the thin ice himself to try another, closer throw.
“I could feel the ice cracking under my feet,” Nelson told KSL News.
Eventually, he and other responding police officers, including Carr, were able to get the rope to the woman and pull her to shore along with her dogs.
Carr’s body camera footage shows just how perilous a state she is in upon being rescued, being so weak and affected by the cold that she is unable to stand on her own.
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Mantua Police Chief Mike Johnson tells the Associated Press that the woman was transported to hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
As for the officers who responded, they say it’s incredible the woman survived her brush with death.
“This is nothing short of a miracle!” Carr said. “I have no idea even how she’s alive.”
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