College Kid Slides Into Icy River
18-year-old Gael Salcedo from Charles City, Iowa was driving to school one morning when his Jeep slid into a patch of ice and he began to lose control of his vehicle.
Gael said there were oncoming cars so he turned the wheel to the right to avoid hitting them and that’s when things took a terrible turn. His Jeep slid off the road, down a bank, and into an icy flowing river.
“I didn’t know where I was going and then I just didn’t know what to do. I was just thinking in my head ‘I think I’m going to die,'” Gael said in his interview with KIMT.
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He Lost His Phone & Asked His Jeep, “Siri, Call 911”
Water immediately started to seep into his Jeep and through all the chaos he looked around for his phone to call for help but he couldn’t find it. He was all alone stuck in the middle of this river and the only thing he could think of was to scream at his car this, “Siri, call 911!”
Thank heavens the car was still operating well enough to call the police and the Mason City Fire Department showed up fairly quickly. Gael rolled down the window because the water was rising higher and he was afraid he was going to sink.
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Firefighter Helped Him Make It Out Of The River
The water current was strong and had the driver’s side door pinned so the authorities instructed him to open his passenger side door. One of the firefighters walked out into the freezing water to Gael and grabbed him and told him that walking through the water was the only way he was going to make it out.
“My hands were freezing. I couldn’t feel my legs anymore, so I was struggling a lot and the water was just so strong,” Gael told KIMT. “I kept tripping, and I had the guy help me up a bunch of times and I used all my strength to get out of the water.”
Fortunately, they both made it out of the river together and got Gael into an ambulance and took him to the hospital. He was warmed up, treated for shock and left the hospital shortly after with a crazy story to tell.