The woman who jumped from a bridge into Lake Lanier to avoid being hit by a tractor-trailer has been released from the hospital, Channel 2 Action News has reported.
Bianca Vera told Channel 2 she was resting at her parents' house and that she was up and walking.
Vera, from Gainesville, jumped from a bridge into Lake Lanier Feb. 10. She saw a sliding tractor-trailer headed in her direction and decided her only chance of survival was to plunge into the frigid waters below.
"I didn't think it would be a good idea to stay so I jumped," Vera told Channel 2.
Gainesville Deputy Fire Chief Jerome Yarbrough said the 22-year-old woman was inspecting damage from a minor auto accident on the Ga. 53 bridge near the Gainesville Marina when she jumped maybe 40 feet into Lake Lanier.
She had driven onto the bridge about 6:30 a.m. when she noticed it had iced up, Yarbrough told the AJC.
"She kind of took it easy," he said, "but the car next to her sideswiped her and she was knocked into the concrete pillar on the side of the bridge."
The woman had gotten out of her car when she saw the tractor-trailer come onto the bridge and begin to slide, Yarbrough said.
"As it got closer to her, she felt like she didn't need to be on the bridge and she jumped," he said. "It was about 35 or 40 feet off that bridge to the water."
The 22-year-old nursing student spoke by phone from her hospital room to Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Regan.
"When I hit the water, the wind was knocked out of me. I felt like my legs were broken. I was in so much pain," Vera told Channel 2.
She felt her arms and legs quickly going numb in the 40-degree water, the report said.
"I just knew I had to keep moving. If I didn't keep on moving, I would probably lose consciousness and die there," Vera said.
The woman injured a leg in the plunge, but she was able to swim to shore "and pull herself up on some rocks," Yarbrough said. It took firefighters about 30 minutes to get to her and carry her up an embankment to an ambulance, he said.
Yarbrough said she was taken to a local hospital for treatment of the leg injury and hypothermia.
The tractor-trailer did not hit any vehicles on the bridge.
"That was her judgment that she thought it was going to make contact with her," Yarbrough said, "and she's standing on the bridge, so she chose to just bail out on the side of the bridge."
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