An accident in southwest Iowa’s Page County seriously injured a Coin woman and left her vehicle hanging by its bumper from a bridge. Eighteen-year-old Shelby Lorraine Schmelze was traveling on a rural road about two an-a-half miles northeast of Coin at around 11 A.M. Monday, when the 1991 Buick Park Avenue she was driving began to slide sideways.
The car hit a metal bridge approach and a pole, on the southwest corner of the bridge, before ending up with its rear bumper resting on a corner of the bridge, and its front bumper in the ditch. Schmelze became trapped in the vehicle, and had to be freed by the “Jaws of Life” but not before rescuers could stabilize the car to prevent it from falling.
The woman suffered what officials said were “incapacitating injuries” and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic