An 18-year-old Douglas High School senior had a close call on Feb. 15 when she hit a patch of ice on Highway 88 at about 4:45 p.m.
"My car slid on black ice and lost control," Valerie Moore said in a letter to The Record-Courier. "My car rolled over and ended up in a canal."
Going in the opposite direction was Johnson Lane resident Cathy Adamson, who was on her way home going north on Highway 88.
Suddenly there was a flash in front of her at the bridge by the swim center and she saw a white Ford Explorer cartwheel down the embankment.
It stopped on the driver's side down in the river. Two other cars had pulled over and one was on the cell phone with 911.
Adamson jumped out of her truck and ran down the embankment right into the river. The current was running swiftly so she had to hold onto the truck to keep from being washed away.
The driver's side window was broken out. Valerie Moore, 18, was inside, holding her head and crying loudly.
In water thigh high, Adamson was trying to keep Moore calm and said, "Calm down, I don't see any blood, are you on any medication?"
Moore said, "No, but my ankle hurts." Cathy asked her to reach up and turn the motor off, and informed her the paramedics were on their way.
In just a few minutes there were four men there to help. Adamson turned it over to the paramedics and headed for her truck.
Her hands and feet felt frozen. She got into her truck and took off her shoes and socks and turned on the heater, and headed for home.
In her letter, which will appear in Friday's edition, Moore thanks the people who helped her in the accident.
"I can't really remember that much from that night, but I wanted to make sure that I could thank the people," she wrote. "God was seriously looking out for me. You are all my guardian angels."
Moore suffered from a broken arm in the accident. Firefighters and medics from the East Fork Fire & Paramedic Districts responded to the accident.
