Mario Garcia and son-in-law Nivardo De La Torre had been killing time while waiting for their wives, police say.

They ended up finding Matthew Reum, 27, of Mishawaka, whose truck had crashed off Interstate 94 on 20 December.

In hospital, Mr Reum had one of his legs amputated and is now in intensive care, his union says.

Mr Garcia said he had seen the wrecked truck and was moving an airbag out of the way when Mr Reum “woke up”.

The driver told the men he had been trapped and pinned in his seat under the bridge near Portage, he recalled at a news conference held by the state police.

“He tried yelling and screaming, but nobody would hear him,” Mr Garcia recalled the man telling him.

“It was just quiet - just the sound of the water.”

Mr Reum, a union welder, had had no food but survived by drinking rain water.

  • FuglyDuck
    link
    English
    329 months ago

    Okay, so it looks like a pickup, not a semi.

    Still, I’m trying g to figure out how he wasn’t missed for six days- one of which was a major is holiday.

    • @curiousPJ
      link
      English
      32
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      Still, I’m trying g to figure out how he wasn’t missed for six days- one of which was a major is holiday.

      I don’t think it’s too difficult… Working to live survive, no time/energy to develop a significant other, a lack of a ‘family’. Honestly, from my perspective those traits all seem pretty prevalent. What with all of those ‘male loneliness epidemic’ being reported.

      • FuglyDuck
        link
        English
        29 months ago

        Working to live survive

        So his work never noticed he was missing? unless he’s simply that unreliable, most bosses would have called their emergency contact and been like ‘uh, what’s up?’; and it’s doubtful that there would have been literally nobody.

        • @andrewta
          link
          109 months ago

          I don’t have the links right now but I’ve read numerous stories where a person was found dead in their house after they had died years ago. Many people have no one in their life. And many bosses won’t care if you stop showing up. They’ll just assume you quit.

        • @Pretzilla
          link
          89 months ago

          He crashed on Wednesday before the long holiday weekend so only missing for the first day or two

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          19 months ago

          Maybe he had/took a week or two off? It’s kinda pretty common for that around this time of the year.

    • @LesserAbe
      link
      119 months ago

      People could have noticed he’s missing but not know where to look.

    • @andrewta
      link
      29 months ago

      Not sure where it says semi, unless the story was edited

  • SolidGrue
    link
    English
    129 months ago

    A diver might ask, “was it an Airgas truck carrying trimix??”

    FTFA, it seems the truck wasn’t submerged. Otherwise I don’t wanna think about that dive chart