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Natalie Griffin exposes how she survived car crash, Daily Mail Online

‘I thought I was going to die’: Student, Nineteen, who survived horror car crash by clinging to a tree in a sea for twelve HOURS exposes how she survived the accident that killed her best friend

By Anna Hopkins For Dailymail.com 03:12 BST seventeen Jan 2017, updated 14:48 BST nineteen Jan two thousand seventeen

• Natalie Griffin was in passenger seat as Jenna Santos was driving the two home
• They had taken road excursion to Humboldt County, California during winter break
• While driving home, the car hydroplaned and flipped before crashing
• Water rushed in and the two worked together to attempt to kick the windshield out
• Griffin realized they could escape through a violated rear window
• She motioned to her best friend to go after, but Santos never made it out of water
• Griffin held onto a tree during the winter storm and swam across the next morning before climbing a hill of thorny bushes to flag down a passing driver
• She has since exposed how she survived the harrowing practice

After narrowly surviving a car accident that killed her best friend, 19-year-old college student Natalie Griffin has spoken out about the harrowing near-death practice.

As Natalie and Jenna Santos returned from Humboldt County where they were visiting friends, a strong storm caused their car to hydroplane off the embankment of Highway one hundred one on Wednesday night.

She survived by clinging onto a tree for twelve hours in a freezing creek – while Jenna remained trapped in the sunken car and carried down the sea.

‘At very first, I didn’t know I was in the water,’ Griffin told People. ‘I thought she was driving, the sea was moving the car so rapid.’

Griffin was in the passenger seat with her best friend Santos behind the wheel when the car crashed into Outlet Creek in Mendocino County, California.

Water quickly rushed into the car, and the two attempted to kick the cracked windshield out to escape.

The two college students had spent a few days hiking and visiting friends in Humboldt County, where Santos went to school, when they embarked on their 300-mile journey south.

They were about halfway home to Castro Valley when the two thousand four Toyota Corolla hydroplaned off the highway around 7.30pm on Wednesday.

The car flipped several times before crashing into the fast-flowing creek below, according to the California Highway Patrol.

As water began packing the car, the two friends attempted despairingly to kick the windshield out.

The situation was growing increasingly desperate when Griffin noticed they could escape through a violated rear window.

She told Santos to go after her lead, but Griffin emerged from the water with Santos nowhere to be found.

‘That was one of the scariest parts, I thought it was a nightmare, I was so in shock that my friend was in the car, dead,’ said Griffin.

‘I truly thought this was a bad fantasy.’

Griffin, who also practices meditation, managed to stay tranquil during the ensuing ordeal.

She grabbed onto a partially submerged tree about one hundred yards from shore and held onto the branches above the flowing water for twelve hours, Griffin’s cousin Monica Keyser told the East Bay Times.

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She used her jacket to shield herself from the wind and rain and did spreads to keep herself warm as temperatures fell to twenty eight degrees Fahrenheit, Keyser said.

She stayed awake via the night and attempted to scream at cars as they passed overhead.

At one point, Griffin said she began hallucinating and heard her best friend telling her she would be okay.

When day broke, she swam across the creek, but became entangled in a patch of vines that strapped her neck and tummy.

Griffin, described by her cousin as a ‘runner and yogi’, does not consider herself a strong swimmer. She said she had a strike of intuition that she could escape the vines by swimming underneath them.

‘It was crazy for the idea to come,’ she said. ‘It seemed like something divine, like God.’

The idea worked. She then managed to climb up a thorn-covered hill to the road, where she was spotted by a truck driver.

The driver, identified as Brian Coglan by Griffin’s mother, realized she was soaking humid and had only one shoe, so he pulled over and called 911.

Griffin managed to call her mother before she collapsed at around 8.19am Thursday.

She was taken to the Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for hypothermia before being released later that day.

She told authorities where to recover her best friend’s assets, and a member of the Little Lake Volunteer Fire Department’s water rescue team found the submerged Corolla with Santos inwards.

Griffin’s mother Midge Griffin, wrote on Facebook: ‘Our hearts ache for Jenna.’

But she celebrated her daughter’s incredible survival story, and credited the 19-year-old for ‘finding the courage, strength, and the remarkable wit to find a way to live!’

She also wrote: ‘Natalie is scraped, bruised, and stitched up. There are many moments of sadness for her reliving the horrific accident and losing beautiful Jenna.’

Keyser, who set up a GoFundMe page to help cover Santos’ funeral expenses, has now raised over $16,000.

The page reads: ‘Thank you god for providing my sweet beautiful cousin the strength to get through.

‘My heart has been so strenuous today knowing her best friend Jenna is now watching over her. But I know that it was with Jenna’s strength and convenience that Nat was able to make it to the road this morning and for that we are all so very grateful.

‘There is no doubt that the days, weeks, and months to come will bring so many emotions for her and all of us.

‘But for now we are just very grateful and our hearts are with Jenna and her family.

‘Natalie is home and with her family who are supporting and caring for her during this difficult time.’

Santos was a cheerleader at Castro Valley High School before she graduated in two thousand fifteen and went on to attend Humboldt State University. She hoped to become a psychiatrist.

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