Twin teenagers Nicole and Michael Crudele survived a 30-foot plunge into frigid water Tuesday afternoon in Cape May County.
"I heard a crunch -- a muffled thud," Jeff Stuart told the Press of Atlantic City. He looked outside his Strathmere home, saw two heads bobbing in the water and went into rescue mode, grabbing some blankets and racing to the water.
Nicole was behind the wheel of her mother's Ford Expedition when it crashed through the guardrail on the toll bridge over Corson's Inlet and took that dangerous dive.
"I let them borrow the Ford Expedition today because of the ice," their mom, Maria, told the newspaper.
The twins, 18, somehow got out of that big SUV and swam to shore, shaken and shivering.
"They just kept saying, 'Oh my god, I can't believe it," Stuart said. He and his wife wrapped the twins to help warm them up. Both had cuts on their heads and were bleeding, but the biggest threat was hypothermia. February’s average coastal water temperature in Cape May is 37 degrees, according to the National Oceanographic Data Center.
Michael was treated and released and Nicole was kept overnight. The twins, who go to Ocean City High School, are the niece and nephew of Sea Isle City's mayor, Leonard Desiderio who told reporter Michael Miller that he could not believe the two survived.
"They are very fortunate, very lucky,” he said. “How they fell, they landed on the roof. I’m so thankful they’re OK."
The cause of the accident was being investigated.
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