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OGDEN – A 23-year-old woman said it's a miracle she's alive after being involved in a hit-and-run crash that could have sent her car over a bridge and plunging into the Ogden River.
The accident happened on Dec. 23 on Harrison Boulevard near 20th Street.
"It's Christmas and you're supposed to have everything go wonderful for you, and then something happens that just kind of wakes you up," said Sherry Allred.
Allred's daughter, Rachel, is a sophomore at Brigham Young University. Rachel Allred was driving home from Ogden around 11 p.m. on Dec. 23.
"A driver was coming up behind me really fast," she said. "I was like, they're going to hit me. And so I just braced myself and they pushed me. When they hit me the first time they pushed me towards oncoming traffic and as I was straightening out they hit me again."
Rachel Allred's car spun around and hit a guardrail, which stopped her from plunging into the Ogden River directly below.
"I just looked over the ravine and I saw the darkness and the blackness over there and I thought, 'I'm going to be at the bottom of that ravine and I don't want to be,'" she said.
Days after the accident, Rachel Allred and her mother returned to the crash site. They don't think it was just luck that she walked away.
"I thought well how did that stop? How did she not go over the edge if she was spinning and she said it just stopped," said Sherry Allred. "Almost like on a dime. Just poof. And I just couldn't help but think guardian angels were watching over her."
"I could have hit it straight on but my car turned at the last second hitting the guardrail and it turned it and stopped, as if God was like, 'There you go,'" said Rachel Allred.
It's been five days since the crash, and while she has a little whiplash and now she's without a car, Rachel Allred was grateful this story had a happy ending.
"Life is precious. Every day since the accident I've just been thinking I'm here and I'm with my family and I'm alive," she said.
Officers with the Ogden Police Department were still looking for the driver who hit Allred's car. If you have any information please give them a call at 801-395-8221.
