OCEAN CITY, Md. — A 2-year-old girl rescued from a Maryland bay after a five-vehicle crash on a bridge has been released from a hospital and is expected to make a full recovery.
Ocean City police spokesperson Ashley Miller said Tuesday that the girl was released Monday night and is now home with her family.
The girl was thrown from a pickup truck on the Route 90 bridge and landed in Assawoman Bay while still in her car seat.
A man who wants to be anonymous jumped into the bay to save the girl. Witnesses then helped the man and the girl get onto a boat and brought them to paramedics.
Shortly after 2:45 p.m. last Sunday, five vehicles collided on the Route 90 bridge, sending a pickup truck careening toward the guardrail. The truck ended up teetering over the edge of the 4-foot wall. Upon impact, firefighters said a baby — still strapped in her car seat — was thrown into the Assawoman Bay.
14-year old Alayna Oertel was behind the wheel of her family boat when she spotted something strange near the bridge.
“I saw that there was the truck over the guardrail and my first instinct was to go look and see if there were people there. So, I told my dad to take over and I pulled out the life vests," said Alayna Oertel.
Oertel’s father quickly drove to the bridge to find a man in a red shirt, waving his hand feverously and holding a baby. Firefighters said the man who jumped to save the girl was involved in the wreck and wishes to remain anonymous.
“I'm really surprised that he was not injured,” said Joe Oertel, “It's only about four to five feet deep right along where he where the accident was and where he had to jump in.”
“The first thing we did was just get them on the boat and make sure that the baby was OK,” recalled Alayna, “She was crying, so we knew that she was OK.”
Firefighters say the ocean temperature was 50 degrees Sunday; the bay slighter warmer. Crews estimated the baby and good Samaritan were in the water for nearly five minutes until the Oertel family came to their rescue. The firefighter said that the baby girl has traumatic injuries but is alive and stable.
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