A 53-year-old woman who was injured when her car slammed through a fence on an Arizona highway and plummeted 50 feet into a mesquite tree, survived six days in the mangled vehicle before she was rescued.
A rancher and maintenance worker stumbled upon the wreckage on U.S. Route 60, near the town of Wickenberg, almost a week after the crash, according to KPNX.
The pair noticed a broken fence as they were attempting to corral a cow on the highway, and when they investigated further, they found the woman’s car suspended in the tree 50 feet below, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Police said a trooper who was called to the scene and the trio searched the area for footprints. They found tracks leading to a nearby river bed, where they located the woman who was badly injured and severely dehydrated.
Arizona Department of Public Safety director Col. Frank Milstead commended the state trooper, rancher and maintenance worker for their teamwork, saying that it was because of their diligence that “this women’s life was saved.”
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According to KPNX’s Hayden Packwood, the woman told the trooper she had remained in her car for several days, before eventually trying to make her way to nearby railway tracks. She was so badly injured that she never reached the tracks.
The woman was airlifted to hospital where she was treated for her injuries.