Woman trapped 15 hours atop overturned truck in rushing creek, California rescuers say
A woman was rescued after sitting on top of her submerged and overturned pickup truck in a rushing creek for nearly 15 hours, California rescuers say.
A passerby called police after seeing a car submerged in water in Livermore on Tuesday, Jan 23, shortly after 10 a.m., Cheryl Hurd, a spokesperson with the Alameda County Fire Department, said in an email to McClatchy News.
Fire crews arrived and “saw a woman sitting on top of her car,” Hurd said.
Members from the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District put the woman in a rescue harness, California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division Air Operations said in a Jan. 23 Facebook post.
After a California Highway Patrol helicopter arrived, Hurd said rescuers used a short lift to hoist the woman from her truck.
The woman told fire crews she was “trying to drive on a cement bridge to the other side” at about 7:30 p.m. on the day prior, Hurd said.
In the darkness, Hurd said the woman didn’t realize how “deep the water was.”
The bridge, however, was “over a creek bed that had rising water.”
Though she waited on her truck, which was mostly covered in water, overnight the woman was not injured, Hurd said.
She was taken to a hospital, Hurd said.
Livermore is about 45 miles southeast of San Francisco.
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Woman trapped 15 hours atop overturned truck in rushing creek, California rescuers say."
