CEDAR FALLS - A navy blue sling is the only outward hint of the harrowing plummet that Joy Mummelthei survived last week.

The sling keeps the 24-year-old Waverly resident's dislocated shoulder from moving too much.

Beneath the skin are four fractured upper ribs, a cracked vertebra and a bruised lung. There might be a broken shoulder blade.

She moved slowly and with the help of her husband of one year, Drew, 26, when she shifted from her bed to a chair in her room at Covenant Medical Center Tuesday.

When a nurse checked in with her, she admitted her pain is a six on a scale of one to 10.

But Mummelthei is filled with life as she recounts how she escaped death during her morning drive to work on Highway 218 last Friday.

Cedar Falls police said Mummelthei apparently hit ice and lost control of her Oldsmobile Bravada, which slid over the railing of the railroad overpass just south of Lone Tree Road.

The sport utility vehicle launched into a 40- to 50-foot free fall and landed on its roof just feet from the train tracks, trapping Mummelthei inside.

"She was a lucky young lady," said Larry Burman, a division commander with Cedar Falls Fire Department, who led the efforts to free her.

Mummelthei and her husband said it was divine intervention that she escaped serious injury and lived.

"There are so many things that worked just right," Drew Mummelthei said.

He thanked the efforts of the passersby who called for help and the firefighters and paramedics who took her to safety and the doctors who continue to care for her.

The husband noted how rescue crews were able to pluck her from her crushed vehicle and hoist her up the steep embankment before loading her into a helicopter.

"I honestly think God has a plan for me. He was protecting me," Joy Mummelthei said.

Drive to work

The two are still trying to piece together how everything happened.

Joy Mummelthei remembers part of the accident and what followed, and they have been filling in the blank spots by talking with witnesses.

Joy Mummelthei left for her job at Principal Financial in Cedar Falls like any other weekday, heading south on Highway 218.

"I didn't think it was slippery out," she said, and the drive went uneventful until she started to approach the viaduct over the railroad tracks.

She believes she hit an icy spot, and the car began to skid to the left.

Mummelthei steered to the right, but the vehicle began spinning to the right again.

From there, according to witnesses, the Bravada slipped up the wall that acts as the viaduct's guardrail and skidded down the length on its undercarriage.

"She almost rode it like a skateboard," Drew Mummelthei said.

The grinding slowed, and the vehicle teetered on the wall with awkward balance, giving Joy Mummelthei a view of the open air in front of her.

"It was like in slow motion. It was like a roller coaster," she said recounting how she knew a fall was about to follow.

She remembers thinking "I can't die now. I haven't had children yet."

And so she prayed.

Twisted metal, bent ring

The memory of the impact has eluded her.

She remembers her hand being cold when she was trapped upside down in the vehicle. Her wedding ring was bent.

Her husband, who later examined the wrecked Bravada after it had been towed away, said it appears it landed ever so slightly on the passenger-side of the roof first and then rocked to evenly smash the entire top.

A passerby who climbed down the embankment found a 4-inch opening in the crumpled steel where he was able to stick in his hand and feel her pulse to determine she was alive.

"I just remember thinking it was going to be one of the most difficult extrications we've done," said Burman.

Crews had to lug all of their equipment, including a 100-pound hydraulic generator to power their Jaws of Life, down the snow-covered slope with a 50-percent grade.

Mummelthei was crammed into a the space of about "two microwave ovens," Burman said, and firefighters had to free her hand, which was pinned outside the vehicle, and stabilize her spine before taking her out.

The engineering of the Bravada likely contributed to her survival, Burman said, as did her small size.

"She was a small person trapped in a vehicle, and she was belted in, and that helped," he said.

Burman said the entire operation - starting with the radio call and ending rescue workers bringing her to the top of the hill just as the helicopter was setting down - took only 15 minutes.

Witnesses said she was yelling for help, but she doesn't remember any of that or how firefighters cut the door off and carried her up the hill.

Joy Mummelthei's next memory is of being in a helicopter headed for the hospital.

She couldn't remember her name when the medics asked. She did tell them she loved her husband and gave them his phone number. And she told them she wanted to have kids.

Drew Mummelthei, a farmer, was parked on a scale with a truck full of corn in Clarksville when he got phone call about the accident. He rushed to the hospital.

Later, he visited the place where the accident happened and was baffled as to how firefighters and paramedics were able to get her out.

Joy Mummelthei, who has a few bruises but no cuts or scratches despite having to pick automotive glass out of her hair, has started physical therapy to help her move around.

They suspect she will remain in the hospital for a number of days, and it may take months of recovery.

Friends, family and parishioners from their church, Open Bible in Waverly, have offered steady support. She has logged about 170 visitors to her hospital room since Friday.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.