If not for the quick thinking of his friends, Kyle Russell might not be alive today.
The 19-year-old counts himself lucky after a freak accident saw him slip off a bridge on the TCH and fall 20 feet into an icy river near Port Blandford.
The incident happened on Dec. 30.
It could have been a tragedy if it had not been for some quick-thinking friends who came to his rescue.
Kyle told The Packet he was riding his snowmobile around 7:30 p.m. that day with buddies P.J. Pelley, Grant Chatman, Megan Garrett, Brandi McLean and Nick Ryan.
While stopping on a bridge on the salmon river, about 10-kilometres on the side of the Trans Canada Highway from his hometown of Port Blandford, he went to get off his sled.
I couldn’t catch myself and I fell back through the rail.
However, Kyle says he immediately slipped on the snow in the darkness, and tumbled between the opening on the side of the bridge, falling into the icy river.
“I couldn’t catch myself and I fell back through the rail,” he remembers.
On the way down, Kyle struck his head with enough force to crack his helmet.
The river he fell into was over his head. He says reached down with his feet and couldn’t touch bottom. The current took him to the opposite side of the embankment. While he’s not a strong swimmer, he found the strength to get to a single branch from shore and hold on.
That's where his friends spotted him.
The current was strong, but he was able to hold on.
“One of my buddies jumped down and he was trying to reach down to me, but he was afraid to get too far, afraid the ice would give out,” Kyle explained.
After about five minutes in the water, his friends were able to pull him out. For Kyle it surely felt a lot longer.
“I couldn’t do much because I lost all my strength so I was just held on to that stick until they were able to reach me. They grabbed onto my sleeve and pulled me up.”
Kyle remembers him having to take his goggles off to get the water out of his helmet from being submerged in the river. His boots were also full and he couldn’t feel his feet.
After Nick, P.J. and Grant got him to safety, the group quickly stripped Kyle of his wet clothes and gave him some of what they were wearing.
They drove his snowmobile back to his home. Kyle rode back sitting on a machine between P.J. and Megan to keep warm.
Upon arrival at P.J.’s house, he warmed up in the shower and they called his family.
The fast thinking of everyone was amazing … they were amazing.
His parents Jeff and Renee Russell are so thankful for the actions of his friends that day.
Renee gets tearful thinking about how much worse the accident could have been.
“He’s a very lucky boy, they said,” says an emotional Renee.
Having recently had an accident herself after a slip and fall, it’s been a trying Christmas season for the family.
She notes Kyle was riding a snowmobile that belonged to his grandfather, who passed away in 2011. Renee says Kyle was exceptionally close to his pop and the grandfather must’ve been watching over him, enabling his friends to be able to see him in the darkness to come to his aid.
Kyle suffered a sprained wrist and a cold, from a situation that could have been much worse.
Renee also wanted to make people aware of some of the safety precautions riders can take, including the advice to be sure to travel in groups.
“The fast thinking of everyone was amazing … they were amazing.”
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