After Emily Hahn left her boyfriend's apartment in Muncie, she said she had a premonition that the hour drive back home to Kokomo would take longer than usual. Little did the Ball State graduate know it would be a week until she finally arrived.
After flipping her car on Wheeling Avenue Jan. 20, Hahn is lucky to have made it back at all. Hahn said the daughter of a Ball State professor and her boyfriend, a senior, might have possibly saved her life by pulling her from her wrecked car as it rested upside down along the road.
Emily Hahn was traveling north on Wheeling near County Road 500 North. At about 9:30 p.m. she said she spotted what appeared to be a deer and swerved to miss it. Her car spun 180 degrees, slid off the road and flipped.
The position and weight of Hahn's body made it impossible for her to disengage her seatbelt. She was trapped, upside down and scared for her life.
"I thought I had to get out of the car because it could tip again or catch on fire," Hahn said.
The chances of fire may have been more imminent than Hahn first thought. Sarah Price, whose father, Tom Price, is an assistant professor of journalism, was first on the scene with her boyfriend, James Delli. Price said Hahn's still-running car was leaking gas from a punctured tank.
The couple knew they had to react.
Delli pried the passenger door open, but at 6 feet 4 inches tall he was too big to crawl through the opening. Price took over from there, crawling into the car, lifting Hahn up and unbuckling her.
Price said she thinks she acted instinctively and does not consider herself a hero.
"It's a scary thing to crawl into an upside-down car, and I'm not sure why I did it," she said. "I just did it. I don't think I really did anything special, someone would've done the same for me."
Nonetheless, Hahn said Price's presence and voice were reassuring.
"I have never been more excited to see someone in my life," she said. "Honestly, she could've said 'I'm going to beat you up and take all your money' and I would've been fine with it."
After Hahn crawled out of the car, Price and Delli stayed with her to make sure she was safe. Hahn said she was on such an adrenaline high that she had problems determining whether she had been hurt or not.
About 15 minutes after Hahn crawled out of her car, an ambulance came to take her to Ball Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for cuts and bruises.
"I was just bumped and bruised and sore like nobody's business," she said. "I'll take that over broken bones and stitches any day."
At the hospital, Hahn reunited with her boyfriend and her parents, who had driven to Muncie from Carmel. She worried, however, that she would never see her rescuers again.
Her fears were relieved when Price and Delli visited the hospital with a get-well card and banana bread.
Hahn was released from the hospital that night and spent a week away from her job as a staff reporter at the Kokomo Perspective recuperating at her parents' home.
As she recuperated, Hahn said she worried about what could have been. She said she wonders what could've happened if she had a passenger, or if she were not wearing her seatbelt, or if Price and Delli had not shown up.
Hahn has yet to return to where she wrecked and says she probably never will. She uses an alternate route to go home.
Her boyfriend, Kyle Bartlett, however, returned to the site two days later and said he does not know how his girlfriend was able to avoid the trees and telephone poles that line the road.
Hahn and Bartlett have also flipped two cars apiece. Hahn said she believes fate kept death away. Hahn said she feels they must be meant to do something special with their lives.
Price and Hahn say they have both gained something from the experience. Price said she now understands her ability to handle dangerous situations. Hahn said the accident has helped her understand what is truly important in life.
"When something like this happens, it puts your life in perspective," she said. "I got another shot at life."
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