Buried Under Snow in a Car for 10 Hours. Who Would Come to the Rescue?
The storm that blanketed a wide swath of upstate New York made one motorist’s car disappear until an ingenious state trooper found it.
Kevin Kresen with Zone Sgt. Jason Cawley of the New York State Police.Credit.New York State Police
By Ed Shanahan
Dec. 18, 2020
It was around midnight Thursday, and the snow in upstate Owego, N.Y., was falling at what officials estimated was a rate of four inches an hour. By the time it stopped, there would be 40 inches on the ground.
With the storm swirling around him, Kevin Kresen was in his car about 15 miles from home when, he said, a belt in his engine came loose, knocking out the power steering and forcing him off the road into a ditch.
États-Unis Un homme passe 10 heures dans sa voiture ensevelie sous la neige ouest-france.fr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ouest-france.fr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
December 18, 2020
NEW YORK (AP) A man who drove off the road in this week’s snowstorm spent 10 hours trapped in his car after a passing plow and rapidly accumulating snow buried it, finally managing to get a 911 call through and being rescued in the nick of time by a New York state trooper.
Kevin Kresen, 58, of Candor, drove off the road in the town of Owego and became “plowed in by a truck,” state police said.
“If he was in there for another hour his body temperature would have gone lower, and I’m convinced he wouldn’t have made it,” State Police Sgt. Jason Cawley, who rescued the man, said in an interview.
4 months ago in Community, Local jsalzone Photo: WHCU
OWEGO, N.Y. (WHCU) Roads were in bad shape all around the area Thursday, especially in Tioga County.
9-1-1 received several calls about a driver who ran off the road in Owego and needed help. Zone Sergeant Jason Cawley drove out to State Route 17C but didn’t find the car in question.
Zone Sergeant Jason Cawley (provided by NYSP)
In a Facebook post, State Police say Cawley saw a row of mailboxes and walked through the heavy snow to check addresses. After digging, he hit the windshield of a car…with a person stuck inside, who’d been the person desperately dialing 9-1-1. The man had been stranded for more than 10 hours, and was suffering from hypothermia and frostbite.