Two women rescued after car plunges off Lover's Leap

Ruth Hart and Nancy Strohl believe divine intervention saved them from a horrible death.
Throw in a small tree, watchful strangers and brave rescuers, and tragedy was averted.
The two tourists escaped with little more than bruises and rattled nerves after their car plunged off of Lover’s Leap just before 4 p.m. Wednesday.
“I feel like God saved us,” said Hart, 78, of Milan, Ill. “This isn’t exactly how we wanted to spend our vacation.”
“We had a lot of angels looking out for us,” said Strohl, 67, of Rock Island, Ill. “We’re very thankful.”
“It could have been a lot worse,” said firefighter Shane Jaeger, who helped secure the car and talked the women through the ordeal. “They’re both very lucky.”

‘I was screaming’

Hart and Strohl arrived in Hannibal Tuesday.
Hart had been to Lover’s Leap before and wanted to show her friend the dramatic view more than 200 feet above the city.
So, she steered up the steep drive to the parking area at the top and thought she’d hit the right pedal. She hadn’t.
“I hit the gas instead of the brake,” Hart said.
The 2008 Toyota Camry leaped a parking abutment, ripped a hole in a wooden barrier and smashed through a chain link fence at the edge of the cliff.
“When I saw us going through the fence, I was screaming so loud,” Strohl recalled. “I thought we were goners. I thought we were going to end up in the river.”
The car plunged 30 feet down the sheer drop-off and flipped onto its top.
Jaeger said a tree about three inches to four inches thick kept the vehicle from careening down the hill.
“That was all that was holding the car,” he said.

Help at hand

Another twist of fate helped Hart and Strohl.
Steve and Dana Korsmeyer and Harlan and Carla Engelbrecht watched the Cardinals lose to the Reds Tuesday night in St. Louis.
Instead of heading home to Jefferson City, they decided to check out Hannibal.
Had they not, Hart and Strohl might never have gotten help so quickly.
The couples also were atop Lover’s Leap and witnessed the accident.
“When it went off, (Hart) was looking up like ‘Oh, no,’” Steve Korsmeyer said. “I thought it was going to go farther down.”
“It was scary,” Harlan Engelbrecht said. “We were just sitting here talking. We saw a car going through the rail. She went over the edge very fast.”
Carla Engelbrecht called 911. The couples looked over the cliff and heard Hart calling for help.
“She tried to start it,” said Dana Korsmeyer. “She kept honking. We said ‘Don’t worry, we’re getting help.’”
Hart had a cellphone in her purse, but when the car flipped she lost track of it. Strohl left her cellphone at home.
“I was just thankful someone was up here,” Strohl said.

‘Pretty uncomfortable’

Jaeger was the first firefighter to reach the ladies.
One of the department’s new ladder trucks was used to lower him by cable to the car.
“They were a little nervous,” Jaeger said. “We explained to them that we secured (the car) and it wasn’t going anywhere.”
The two women got warm quickly when they weren’t able to run the car’s air conditioner, but they finally got the windows down.
“We undid our seat belts because we were upside down,” Hart said. “We were both on the roof of the car. It was pretty uncomfortable.”
Both were glad the car’s airbags did not deploy.
“That really would have pinned us in,” Strohl said.
Jaeger, who from experience is adept at keeping accident victims calm, continued talking to the ladies.
“I told them once we got them out, we would secure them and they would be safe,” Jaeger said.

Training pays off

Firefighters are ready for anything, but a bit of irony played into the rescue.
Crews had trained for a similar accident at the exact spot in 1997.

The department didn’t have its huge aerial ladder truck then, but Chief Tim Carter called for it Wednesday.
The abruptness of the cliff’s incline made getting the ladies out tricky.
Carter did not want rescuer Jeff Moore trying to walk Hart and Strohl back up the scraggly bluff once they were removed from the car.
“It’s kind of a unique situation,” Carter said.
To cut down the angle, he had Moore secured to the aerial truck’s winch and lowered to the vehicle.
Moore then brought the women up one at a time. Strohl was first at 4:40 p.m., followed by Hart a few minutes later.
“It was a little bit of a challenging rescue” but “we’re trained for that type of” life-saving feat, Jaeger said.
“Everything went smoothly,” Carter added. “Luck was on their side.”
About 20 minutes after the rescue, Tallman Towing pulled the lightly-damaged Toyota to the top.

Repairs planned

The parks department locked the entrance gate and barred access to Lover’s Leap Wednesday night.
Director Chris Atkinson said repairs will be made before the lookout along Highway 79 at the south edge of the city is re-opened.
“As far as damage, it looks pretty minimal,” he said.
Atkinson said a sturdier fence will be studied. But he added that the accident was a “one-in-million-thing,” and that most visitors probably would not welcome any kind of barrier that would detract from the scenic experience.
No charges had been filed Wednesday in the accident.
Despite their ordeal, Hart and Strohl planned to stay Wednesday night at their Hannibal hotel room.
Hart also has a sister, Edna Church, who lives in Palmyra.

The ladies originally planned to continue their trip Thursday to St. Charles, but said they likely would return to their homes in the Quad Cities.
“All’s well that ends well,” Strohl said.