Driver grateful for savior after crash

MORGAN COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) - Ellen Pruitt laughs now, but she didn't when her Chevrolet ended up upside down in a creek near Ind. 142 in Morgan County on Tuesday morning.

“I hit this patch of something, and it was like I was on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the fair,“ the 54-year-old said, laughing.

Moments after she lost control of her car on Ind. 142, west of Ind. 39, an OnStar operator said: “We understand you've been in a collision.”

Pruitt said she tried to answer yes, but the system stopped working because it was submerged underneath the water. She was in the water, too. She was able to position herself so that her head and shoulder were out of the water, but she couldn’t get herself out of the car.

“I started getting really cold and shivering and shaking really bad,” she recalled later Tuesday. “I thought, ‘I’m getting cold here fast, and somebody needs to find me soon.’”

That somebody was Jeremy Mosier. He was on his way to work when he noticed Pruitt signaling for help.

"I looked over and seen car in a ditch and lights flashing, but then got one of those feelings: I needed to turn around,” Mosier remembered

He went back and called 911. Emergency crews arrived and were able to pull Pruitt out of the car.

Pruitt was lucky, walking away with only a few bruises. She was also treated for hypothermia. And through it all, her sense of humor shined.

“When they started pulling me out I said: ‘I know you wish I was a size zero,’ because I’m a big gal, and they had to hoist me out of that bank,” she said.

All jokes aside, she called Mosier her angel. She knows all stories that start like hers don't finish with laughter. She said the outcome could’ve been different if she didn’t wear a seat belt.