On Friday, July 19, at 8:25 pm, a woman was hit off of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and lived to tell the tale.

   Morgan Jade Lake, 22, was driving on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge when an 18-wheeler tractor trailer driving full speed rear ended her red 2007 Chrysler Sebring.

   She explains how she saw her car “explode with glass everywhere and airbags coming at me [Lake] full force”.

   Lake’s car rode up on the 3 foot high barrier on the side of the bridge and went flying, teetering briefly at the top, then plummeting 40 feet into the Chesapeake Bay.

   Lake explains how her eyes were closed and her mouth filled up with water and she had started to drown inside of her car.  She explains how the only thought running through her mind at the time was, “I don’t want to die.”

   Lake describes how she visualized her car as she was under water, unbuckled her seatbelt, turned, pushed, and swam out of the drivers side window, and frantically kicked to the surface.

   Bleeding and out of breath, Lake was able to swim to some nearby rocks and a boater who saw the incident came to help her.

   Lake was rescued soon after the accident and was flown by helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

   She was in critical condition late Friday evening with non life threatening injuries.  She was released the next day with a sprained ankle, and some bumps and bruises.

   Lake preaches that she is so blessed to be alive and wants to inspire people to not give up, even in the most hopeless of situations.

   “When I heard about the accident, I was on my way to the ocean.  I was very on edge because we were about to go over the Bay Bridge until we heard there was an accident.  I was really scared for the woman who fell because I couldn’t imagine free falling 40 feet off of a bridge.  Its a miracle she survived.,” said senior Shannon Mansberger.