In a near-death accident, one Warsaw woman was badly injured when her truck rolled over a guard rail, last September on S.R. 19 in Nappanee.
Since the traumatic wreck, Abbie McBride has set out to find the person who rescued her.
Our partners at WNDU report, McBride was alone in her truck, and suffered several broken bones during the crash. She was able to free herself from the wreckage, but says several cars passed her by without stopping.
Now she is thankful for the man who did stop, and who ultimately saved her life.
McBride wears angel wings around her neck. It was gift from a family member in the days following the crash.
“Don’t take anything for granted,” said Abbie McBride of Warsaw, who is thankful for the man who saved her.
The accident happened around six a.m. as McBride was driving to work. “I was headed north on 19 and there was a deer that had come up over the left side of the guard rail,” said McBride.
When she swerved to miss it, her tires became stuck in the gravel. “Then I over-corrected and it actually shot me off the other side of the road into a creek,” said McBride.
Her truck ended up in a ditch, where a piece of it remains even months later.
“When I was done rolling, I looked up, and I had glass everywhere. I just remember screaming. My horn was going off, my airbags never deployed,” said McBride.
Bloodied and wet, McBride says she eventually made her way out of the truck and climbed up the embankment.
“Then with this hand I couldn’t pull myself over the guard rail, so I went under it,” said McBride.
After three cars passed her by, one man finally stopped.
“I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and holding my arm up; my arm was a mess, I had glass everywhere, and he called 911,” said McBride.
McBride says he stayed with her until the ambulance arrived, where she needed to be airlifted to the hospital for immediate treatment.
“Thank you very, very much. After three cars had gone by me, one car almost hitting me, I did not think anybody was stopping. You didn’t have to stop, but you chose to,” said McBride. “There are still good people out there…I just really would like to thank him a lot.”
Since the crash, McBride devotes much of her time to physical therapy for her arm, and her back. The accident gave her a broken wrist, elbow, and also broke her back in two places. In December, she had her fourth recovery surgery.
She says she misses work and hopes to get back to her job in nursing in the next several months when she is well enough to do so.
Since WNDU’s interview with Abbie Tuesday morning, she was able to track down the man who stopped to help her. They had a phone conversation and she tells WNDU she would still love to meet him face-to-face.
