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A Utah County woman survived two days trapped in her car after crashing in American Fork Canyon. She was found by passersby on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. 

Courtesy of UCSO

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A Highland woman survived two days trapped in her car after crashing in American Fork Canyon. She was found by passersby on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. 

Courtesy of UCSO

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A Highland woman survived two days trapped in her car after crashing in American Fork Canyon. She was found by passersby on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. 

Courtesy of UCSO

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A 29-year-old Utah County woman was hospitalized Thursday evening after being trapped in a car for two days after a crash in American Fork Canyon.

According to Sgt. Spencer Cannon with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, around 3:30 p.m. Thursday they received a report that a woman was trapped in her car on SR-92 near the Pine Hollow Trailhead parking lot.

Sometime Tuesday, Heather Blackwelder’s car had gone through a guardrail and fell several hundred feet down the side of the mountain.

“This woman is lucky to be alive from the crash in the first place,” Cannon said.

The car landed in a steep, densely wooded area, and Cannon said it would have been very unlikely that Blackwelder would have been found if it weren’t for a Mt. Pleasant couple who were driving and enjoying the scenery in the area.

Spencer Dryden and his girlfriend, Cleo Jackson, were driving the Alpine Loop on his day off, stopping at points along the road to take pictures.

“Right before we were about to get back into our car, I heard somebody yelling for help,” Dryden said. “I was hearing help repeatedly over and over again. At first I thought it was kids playing in the woods.”

Dryden said that at that point he yelled to ask if someone was in trouble and the response he got was that, yes, she needed medical attention.

Dryden tried to get 911 on his phone, but they couldn’t get service, so he sent Jackson down the road to the Mutual Dell camp in their car while he headed down the mountain to see what he could do.

“I started to head down and started to see debris, so I said, ‘I don’t see you yet, where are you?’ he said.

The response was that she was in a car.

“In my mind, things started to get serious, so I started to pick up my pace,” Dryden said.

At that point, he saw the car the base of some trees and found Blackwelder in the driver’s seat of the car. He said that she was laid back in the seat, and that she told him that her ankles were injured and that her back and wrist hurt. 

Dryden asked Blackwelder what he could do to help and she said that she needed water, so he headed back up to the road to see if he could find help. That’s when he flagged down a couple driving by in a truck, who also came down to help.

“As I got back down to her, I asked her ‘How long ago did this happen,'” Dryden said. “She said, ‘two days ago.'”

“I thought, two days ago? Oh my gosh, that’s insane.”

Dryden said that he kept reassuring Blackwelder that help was coming.

Jackson, meanwhile, was able to make it to the Mutual Dell camp where staff there were able to call for help. 

Crews from the Utah County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team, Lone Peak Fire Department and LifeFlight responded.

Medical personnel were able to stabilize Blackwelder and she was flown to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. According to Cannon, she sustained several injuries, including possible broken bones, but none of her injuries appear to be life-threatening.

As for Dryden, he says the experience was something he never would have expected.

“It definitely changes the way you look at life,” he said. “I feel like my life has been forever changed by saving the life of another person.”