A man and his father-in-law were fishing by a creek while accidentally spotting a man trapped in a wrecked car for days, Indiana said Tuesday.
Mario García and son-in-law Nivaldo de la Torre said that the two found the man around 3:35 p.m. in a creek under the bridge of Interstate 94 in the municipality of Portici, where they initially thought he was dead.
Glenn Fifield, a spokesman for Indiana**, said they initially thought they were seeing a dead man until one of them touched him and the man "turned his head and started talking."
García and de la Torre said the man was not sure how long he had been trapped and that he had multiple visible wounds on his body, including a broken hand.
He said he couldn't feel his limbs. Garcia said.
Fifield said it took several hours for fire department rescuers to get the man out.
He said it was difficult for rescuers to get close to the wreckage of the car, which required walking, and the flowing water was several feet deep and about 30 feet wide.
Fifield said the man was taken to the hospital and his injuries were assessed to be life-threatening.
Investigators are still trying to identify the man, who appears to be in his 20s and from the South Bend area.
Fifield said he may have been there for almost a week without being spotted because the area was out of sight of the interstate.
I looked at it from the bridge and couldn't see it. Fifield said. He added that no accidents have been reported in the area in recent days.
* It is believed that the man was heading west on Interstate 94 when near the 19-mile sign the car went off the highway for reasons that are not yet known.
The weather in northwestern Indiana was also a factor in the man's survival.
According to the National Weather Service, high temperatures reached 58 degrees in many parts of Porter County on Monday, with lows of 40 degrees. Fifield said there was freezing weather last year, but the weather has been warmer than normal recently.
Frankly," he said, "it's a miracle he's still alive." ”