Jul 27, 2008 6:24 pm US/Central
Her Car Dangled On Edge Of The Collapsed Bridge
(WCCO)
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Jean Forster remembers being helped by a guy on bike who was able to pull her to safety.
CBS
As the one year anniversary of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse nears, WCCO will share stories from those who responded to the disaster, those who survived it and those trying to rebuild their lives after losing loved ones.
One such person is 58-year-old Jean Forster whose car dangled on the edge of the bridge when it fell.
"It was just a milli-second and I just thought road construction, and then I started falling," she recalled.
The University of Minnesota professor had just left work around 6 p.m. She had taken the northbound entrance ramp to I-35W, off Washington Avenue. Moments later the bridge fell.
"There was just this whomp, whomp, whomp," said Forster. "I didn't know how much was hanging over the edge and I didn't go look because who knew what was going to happen next. I just wanted to get off of there."
Forster remembers seeing the wheels of her car hooked behind the pavement, which makes her think that in some ways that saved her because the car could not move forward, down the collapsed bridge.
A guy on bike was able to pull her to safety.
"I got out on the drivers side," said Forster.
While her experience was traumatic she's not letting it stop her from getting on with her life.
"I really had no problems at all. No physical and no emotional problems from the crash," said Forster.
She knows she was incredibly lucky and never thought she was going to die, but she expected to be injured. Instead she walked away unscathed.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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