2 Women Survive After SUV Plunges 60 Feet Off I-80 Bridge In Hackensack

HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Two women cheated death Friday when their SUV took a 60-foot plunge off a bridge in Hackensack, N.J.

The Toyota RAV4 was headed east around 7:15 a.m. Friday when it plummeted about 60 feet off an overpass in Hackensack, officials said.

The vehicle landed tires down, narrowly missing the Hackensack River, CBS2's Janelle Burrell reported.

The driver, Elizabeth Wolthoff, 24, and her roommate, passenger Rebecca Winslow, 23, were trapped inside.

It took firefighters about 30 minutes to cut off the doors and roof to reach the women, who were both alert.

"Everybody that saw the distance that the car fell was just taken back by the fact that they had not been injured more severely and that they were able to talk to us," firefighter Michael Thomasey told 1010 WINS.

"She could have been dead," Rebecca's sister Jessica told CBS2's Christine Sloan. "It's scary, it's terrifying -- my sister fell off, drove off a bridge."

Jessica Winslow told Sloan her sister was in shock. "She was scared like, she didn't even realize she was going over. She was more concerned about hitting someone else and the next thing she knows, she was over the side."

Wolthoff's parents told CBS2 she swerved to miss a truck. "She said she was cut off and lost control of the car," her father said.

The women ended up crashing into a snow bank  that probably catapulted the RAV4 off of the bridge, narrowly missing the Hackensack River and landing tires down.

Bert D'Esposito, who works nearby, said his coworker saw a snow embankment with two tire tracks on it and they suspect the glare at the time of the accident was a factor as well.

"Maybe these  girls got blinded by the sun, unless somebody cut them off, and they just went off it like a ramp," D'Esposito said.

The women were taken to Hackensack Hospital, complaining of neck and back pain, police said.

"She said she was in a lot of pain when she landed on the ground," said Wolthoff's boyfriend Kevin Ricco.

"God was watching over them today," said Hackensack Fire Lt. Justin Derevyanik, who was the first emergency responder on the scene. "It landed on a tree which probably padded the fall a little bit and then on a fence."

D'Esposito said he was amazed the women weren't more seriously injured.

"If that car landed on its roof it'd probably be a different story. This all worked out, for Friday the 13th, not bad," he said.

"I want to thank the firefighters and everybody that was there that helped them, rescued them ... get them out of the car safely," Jessica Winslow told Sloan.

Winslow has a minor back injury and Wolthoff underwent surgery for a fractured back at Hackensack Medical Center, Sloan reported.

Both lucky it wasn't much worse on this Friday the 13th.

State police are investigating this as a one car accident.