SECHELT, B.C. — The rescue of a British Columbia woman after her SUV plunged off the Sunshine Coast Highway near Sechelt and landed in a swollen creek was "miraculous," RCMP said Thursday.
Mounties say Carolynne, whose last name is being withheld, was driving on the morning of Nov. 23 when her vehicle fishtailed, skidded 12 metres off the roadway, over a waterfall and into the creek below.
The Surrey resident says in a police news release that she thought she was going to die as her car went over a cliff.
Carolynne found herself immersed up to her neck in freezing water as her vehicle landed sideways on the driver's side but she was able to release her seatbelt and climbed into a corner of her car where she could keep part of her body out of the water.
She considered swimming out into the creek but feared being swept down the next waterfall.
"All of my ideas led to a place I didn't want to end up... I kept saying to myself, 'I was so close,'" she said.
A passersby who saw Carolynne's vehicle called emergency services and rescuers used ropes and a harness lowered from a ladder truck overhead to pull her to safety three hours after she'd gone into the water.
Const. Harrison Mohr called the rescue, which involved Sunshine Coast Search and Rescue and multiple fire departments, "miraculous."
"Everyone — including Carolynne — was committed to ensuring a successful outcome. Failure was not an option," he said.
Carolynne spent a week in hospital to treat a broken nose, a concussion and hypothermia.
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