Teen Pinned In Car For 15 Hours Volkswagen Forced Off Road, Driver Says, Ending Up Hidden From View

An 18-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman spent 15 hours pinned in her overturned Volkswagen Beetle late Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Monica Milem was in fair condition Wednesday evening at Kootenai Medical Center where she was being treated for injuries to her right arm. She also may have hypothermia, according to ambulance reports.

Milem was discovered in a dense thicket just 15 feet north of Sunnyside Road about 1 p.m. Wednesday by an unidentified Sunnyside Road resident. He was out mowing his lawn and heard her call for help, said Milem’s father, Norman.

The wreckage wasn’t visible from the road.

The accident happened shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday. Milem was headed up Sunnyside Road, returning home from taking her boyfriend home in downtown Coeur d’Alene, Norman Milem said.

Milem told Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies that her car was forced off the road by another vehicle that attempted to pass her on a curve, Sgt. Ward Crawford said. The silver-gray Volkswagen Beetle went up the embankment and rolled back toward the road, coming to rest in thick brush behind an evergreen tree.

Milem’s arm went through the windshield and was trapped under the roof. If not for that, there’s a good possibility she would have walked away from the accident, Crawford said. It is not clear whether she was wearing a seat belt.

Rescue workers spent a dicey hour freeing Milem as the car was leaking gasoline. They used hand-winches to secure the car to nearby trees, worrying that because of its round top, it would move while they worked on it, said Capt. Aaron Jones of the Kootenai County Fire District.

An ax and chainsaw were used to get brush away from the car. After jacking up the Volkswagen and freeing Milem’s arm, firefighters had to cut off the steering wheel to get her out of the vehicle, where she had been laying on her stomach for 15 hours, Jones said.

Milem, who was conscious throughout the rescue, was “very fortunate, especially for the time she was in there,” he said. The low temperature Tuesday night was 45 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Milem’s father initially was worried when she didn’t return last night. But she works odd hours at Alpha Health Services in Post Falls, and her parents assumed she went to work instead of coming home.

Wednesday Norman Milem became worried again and drove Sunnyside Road looking for his daughter. He was about to call authorities when they called him, he said.

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