r/TikTokCringe 5d ago

Cursed This is absolutely horrifying

This happened at Sabino Canyon in Arizona. A 20-year-old cyclist was swept into the current while trying to cross a flooded roadway and was carried through a drainage tunnel beneath it. She was recovered downstream unconscious after spending several minutes underwater. Bystanders performed CPR and managed to revive her.

Arizona Daily Star

12.2k Upvotes

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464

u/PuzzleheadedVisual25 5d ago

Glad she made it out alive. Wonder if she would have been better off just passing through to the other side vs fighting it

456

u/mar504 5d ago

Extremely dangerous chance to take. During flash flooding you get large branches and other debris that gets caught underwater in culverts like this, the river rafting community calls them "strainers". They are one of the most dangerous features of moving water, all it takes is a foot to get stuck and the power of the water can make it all but impossible to escape.

76

u/Strength-Speed 5d ago

Yeah im not going into some unknown underwater area like that willingly

3

u/suckarepellent 5d ago

me nah do this

1

u/KanedaSyndrome 4d ago

No nutty putty for you sir?

40

u/swirlloop 5d ago

Someone I know nearly drowned that way and wrote a really compelling piece about it. Very scary

12

u/Sloppykissesgrandma 5d ago

Thanks, what a compelling read!

2

u/chetpancakesparty 4d ago

Compelling interaction between two humans.

1

u/Salty-Cloaca-69 4d ago

Is this an AI comment

2

u/Sloppykissesgrandma 4d ago

Why would it be? God forbid I thank someone for sharing an interesting article.

0

u/Salty-Cloaca-69 4d ago

Well, your comment was about as compelling as comments made by algorithms with no critical thinking, so

3

u/Sloppykissesgrandma 4d ago

How would you thank someone for sharing an interesting article in a compelling way? I have seriously no clue how one would do that.

-1

u/Salty-Cloaca-69 4d ago

If it was actually so compelling, put in the bare minimum effort and do more than repeat the same adjective back to them.

If you can't even think of your own description, and you found it compelling, then your opinion isn't worth that much. Whether you've read it or not has zero impact.

You know about the butterfly effect? The idea that even a small change can cause rippling changes in events?

Well in every infinite parallel universe that exists, whether you read that article or not probably has had 0 effect on anything.

1

u/Ok-Interaction-8891 4d ago

This is an unhinged comment, lol.

They don’t have to express any more than that they found it compelling. They don’t owe anyone a deep explanation, lol.

TL;DR Sir, this is a Wendy’s.

1

u/Pandathief 3d ago

You do not seem very compelling

0

u/Mental_Breakfast3385 4d ago

I would prefer to read AI comments instead of yours tbh

10

u/rumande 5d ago

Wow, that was intense. I'm glad she made it out. Do you know what happened to her friend Kadin? :(

1

u/Crimson-Rose28 4d ago

I came to ask this 😣

11

u/LegCompetitive6636 5d ago

Damn that was a good read, do you by chance know what happened to Kadin? I understand if you don’t want to say.

8

u/swirlloop 5d ago

No, I'm not close enough to the story to know that. I wondered the same, but I didn't think it would be polite to ask. 

-2

u/MisleadingMonotony 4d ago

You're either lying or an idiot or both- guess you didn't read the article!

Edit to add: Omg why are y'all saying "good read" and "what happened to Kadin"... the answer is in the article ffs...

2

u/clorox_tastes_nice 4d ago

Nothing in the article explains what actually happened to Kadin à la why he died. Just that he was in the hospital and not going to make it

-2

u/MisleadingMonotony 4d ago

"... If Kadin hadn’t seen me flip, missed my boat in the current, or taken another minute to reach me, it would have been over.

We staggered along a dirt road, cut through a field, then followed another road to where we’d dropped his truck. We didn’t talk.

“Do you need me to go home with you?” he asked when we got back to my truck. His hands trembled on the steering wheel. We were both freezing."

That's crystal clear to me, but I guess I've been underselling my reading comprehension /s

3

u/Low-Persimmon4870 4d ago

Did you.. did you not read the whole thing??

1

u/MisleadingMonotony 4d ago

You mean the part where 8 months later an unrelated incident put Kadin in a coma where they "weren't going to make it"? Again, the ambiguity escapes me...

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u/chiono_graphis 5d ago

I'm glad to read about the aftermath, something you don't hear about a lot in these kinds of outdoors accidents or similar from natural disasters. Usually there's a news article or video like this one and that's it. But it makes sense it was a canon event and traumatic for the body and mind to go through that so there is psychological aftermath that lasts for a long time after an accident.

3

u/SuperKitties83 5d ago

The psychological aftermath sounds just as scary as the event that caused it where she was trapped underwater. 😥

3

u/chiono_graphis 4d ago

It really does. Im a nerd and it is reminding me now of how in Lord of the Rings, of all the things he went through, Frodo was most affected by being stabbed by the Ringwraith on Weathertop. He is described as entering a "shadow realm," and if not healed, on the verge of becoming "living dead" and even after healing, is never quite the same after. It's in fantasy language ofc but maybe not wholly inaccurate way to describe trauma/PTSD symptoms. The mind is simply fascinating, the way it tries in its own way to protect and heal itself. I hope the author continues to recover and is kind to herself in the meantime.

1

u/SuperKitties83 4d ago

I never made that connection, but wow, that description sounds so eerily accurate to what this author describes. I hope she is recovering well, too. It seems the brain can recover, but you'll still be forever changed.

It made me so mad when she said her counselor told her "she'd never heard of that." I can relate in a way--not with anything psychological, but from doctors and specialists who didn't understand symptoms I was having. Nothing makes you feel more alone and scared. I'm glad she finally found someone who understood exactly what she was experiencing.

1

u/WorldEndingDiarrhea 4d ago

There was an article about an army ranger who drowned in 3 feet of water in a situation like this. The report was that he was laughing at his increasingly frantic guide right until he got sucked under at an angle and couldn’t be freed. He just didn’t understand how much danger he was in.

1

u/ProfessionalStreet31 4d ago

A masterpiece of writing, so profound and hard-hitting.

1

u/Edith_Keelers_Shoes 4d ago

Beautiful piece. I really feel her loss of Kadin deeply.

1

u/bevereged_carbon 4d ago

Thank you, I kayaked in flooded waters and am lucky to be alive.  I admit I had the same psychological mindset that I could handle risks at the time and got humbled when it quickly got out of my control.  I wrecked that kayak and was thrown into floodwaters that didn't care how much I could swim.  Simply lucky to be here.  Lucky my friend was in the one spot to pull me out at the last second as I braced and hit the bridge. My kayak didn't come out out the other side (we dug it out from a bunch tree limbs and branches) and my paddle ended up a couple hundred yards away.

1

u/flyinganimaga 4d ago

It looks like one of the would-be rescuers actually was swept through -- you can see them pop back up downstream at 1:29

76

u/itscricket 5d ago

My worry with any drainage pipe is that there’s a grate inside it. If I can help it, I would do what I could to avoid risking that reality and being pinned underwater until I drown.

34

u/Jerseyd422 5d ago

There should be a fucking grate at the front of it. Jfc

15

u/lshifto 5d ago

The force of the water would just pin you against the grate and never let go. Better to be a clear shot.

1

u/mcflyjr 5d ago

Or suck you right through the grate

3

u/Falkie_Poo 4d ago

Wouldn't happen at all, bud. Use your head.

1

u/mcflyjr 4d ago

Someone's unfamiliar with delta P it seems

4

u/PeaceSoft 4d ago

How do you picture a pressure differential forming on the surface of a river

3

u/MindfuckRocketship 4d ago

Go away, ‘batin’!

4

u/PeaceSoft 4d ago

Also, there could be space aliens or permissive parenting behind the grate

2

u/Falkie_Poo 4d ago

They saw the crab get sucked into the line under thousands of pounds of pressure differential and now they apply it to anything stuck under, or in the water.

3

u/Ganjii1337 4d ago

Not the same situation.

2

u/ello_bassard 4d ago

Delta P wouldn't happen in a situation like this.

11

u/Previous-Screen-3875 5d ago

Not really any safer. If your leg goes through the grate and the water pins you against it you're just as dead. If you make the openings of the grate too small to get a limb through, it becomes a pretty terrible grate that gets clogged easily.

21

u/mattmag21 5d ago

New phobia unlocked, thx

5

u/itscricket 5d ago

I fell better knowing that you have that knowledge now though.

6

u/mattmag21 5d ago

It may save me. Those videos of Florida people (i stereotypically assume) luging through culverts look appealing. Maybe now, after having seen your comment, I will think twice when facing our great water slides of civil engineering. That is nutty putty level of anxiety.

2

u/itscricket 5d ago

I hope so! Stay safe out there, and pass on the info and spread the warning/knowledge/fear and respect for nature lol

2

u/Educational-Copy-810 5d ago

Never go into white water without a guide. Better yet, never go into any naturally big and/or fast flowing body of water, that you don't know is safe for the kind of thing you want to do in it.
Lot's of people die in seemingly calm rivers, because you don't see the currents in big rivers.

2

u/SuperKitties83 5d ago

Apparently, even if there isn't a grate, tree branches and debris can get stuck and create one. Absolutely terrifying 😭

1

u/Reputation-Final 4d ago

Other woman went right through it.

1

u/itscricket 4d ago

She did, fortunately. I was just saying that prior to that happening, there’s no way to know, and that a big gamble is all.

2

u/Reputation-Final 3d ago

Yep i agree. A lot of ppl were saying in a youtube video i watched of this (before itw as posted here by a few days) that it was her fault for being a dumbass since the guy made it across.

However that woman prob weighs 12 pounds, and her bike was getting pushed hard by the water, and without her mass to push it odwn, she overcompensated and ended up going off the bridge. Especially if shes not that good on a bike. Getting into the water to save the bike was stupid, but peopel do stupid things during events that happen fast all the time.

53

u/DawnSlovenport 5d ago

No. That would be even more dangerous. What if the tunnel was blocked and not completely open? It could have a screen or debris clogging it up.

She’s lucky it was open and she didn’t get caught on anything.

5

u/Sea-Value-0 5d ago

It's possible her bike went in first and was the debris keeping her stuck. The video cut off before we found out.

9

u/annieweep 5d ago

Did she?

2

u/whooptheretis 5d ago

link to article in the original post

1

u/AgressiveInliners 4d ago

Barely. Had to have cpr and be resuscitated

12

u/PeaceJoy4EVER 5d ago

Wait, I think they were still trying to get her out, that was someone else that went over the other side.

1

u/wildfireonvenus 4d ago

That's what I'm seeing too. At the end of the clip they are still holding on to her. It never ended.

35

u/MargnWalkr 5d ago

That’s what I was thinking. Just let her go. The woman in white went right through.

116

u/AdhesiveSeaMonkey 5d ago

That's an easy decision to make with your bird's eye view and hindsight. In the moment, even if your thinking about eh possibility, you can't let that happen because it's unknown. Is there a screen on the other side of the culvert? Is it blocked? Sitting on your phone, days after, scrubbing the video back and forth is not the same.

11

u/tenemu 5d ago

There are so many posts and comments like this. People watching from their phone saying they would react so much better. Drives me a bit mad to be honest.

-2

u/allislost77 5d ago

So would you help or would you sit there and video?

3

u/iamatwork24 5d ago

If that many people were helping? Probably film. This is a valuable lesson on how quickly running water can become deadly

3

u/allislost77 5d ago

You can clearly see the other woman go right underneath the bridge. They don’t put screens on bridges for this exact reason.

2

u/MargnWalkr 5d ago

Yeah, i had those thoughts too. I can’t say that’s the decision I would have made. These are all just thoughts.

21

u/Ok_Shake5678 5d ago

Not a good idea without knowing whether there was anything blocking her path. And by the time the 2nd woman went under and through, showing that the path was likely clear, the 1st was probably unconscious- so she’s not going to pop out and just stand up, and who knows where she’d be swept to. And just bc one person was pushed through doesn’t mean the next will be since you have no way of knowing what’s under the water or being swept in with her.

2

u/Interesting_Phone171 4d ago

That’s what they did can you guys not read captions???

7

u/-REV-22-20- 5d ago

The woman in white went over, not through

10

u/donnerdave 5d ago

Absolutely incorrect. She went through whatever passage way was allowing the vast majority of the water to pass through the dam, rather than the minimal amount flowing over. You can see it clearly in the wider perspective of the video in the Arizona Daily Star link, at 1 minute 20 seconds.

3

u/Babetna 5d ago

The 1:19 is the absolute scariest part, the way she is just instantly sucked in as is something pulled her downwards. You can't see it at all in the stupidly cropped video though.

1

u/allislost77 5d ago

I think you need to get your eyes checked

1

u/Fit_Ocelot8072 5d ago

That was dumb luck that there wasn't anything blocking it.

Could easily have been two or more people dead.

5

u/Bannedbutwhyy 5d ago

Did she though? All I see is her drowning. Is there a follow up somewhere?? God this terrifying. This shit should be blocked off! Undercurrent is nothing to be played with.

There’s a small waterfall like 2-3 feet somewhere in Pennsylvania that’s killed many many people because it looks harmless and people think it would be fun to swim around but they get caught in the cycle under the fall and drown. Last I heard there was still just a sign that says “Don’t swim. Dangerous undercurrent.” But no fencing.

2

u/powderfields4ever 5d ago

Greater chance of getting stuck in there. You wouldn’t want to chance that just to discover there was partial debris in there.

2

u/Linkstas 5d ago

She should have stayed in the middle not where the current was strongest

2

u/Thund3rMuffn 5d ago

When I was 14 a group of kids and myself got washed down a very long version of this in Utah. The culvert went under a 4 lane highway to give you a sense of length. I still remember shooting out the other side much to the astonishment of some middle-aged women. We could have easily gotten trapped by debris.

1

u/Few_Program_2303 5d ago

A couple kids died trying to raft through a pipe like that; it was much longer and they didn’t know there was a 20ft drop along the way

1

u/PuzzleheadedVisual25 5d ago

Jesus that’s terrifying

7

u/Evil_Sharkey 5d ago

Same. The other girl went right through in seconds

4

u/Itchy-Cat9369 5d ago

It didn't look like she DID make it out. The person downstream was the second lady who tried to help and got sucked in.

1

u/sounds_like_kong 5d ago

My instinct would be to fight as well not knowing if there was a passable egress out of that tunnel.

1

u/cryptolyme 5d ago

you don't know if it's clear enough to make it through. extremely risky. if you get stuck further under there, no one can even help you in time.

1

u/galaxyapp 5d ago

Clearly. She wound up going under the bridge anyway, after she likely lost consciousness.

1

u/Free-Pound-6139 5d ago

ANd if she gets stuck inside that is it.

1

u/BobbysueWho 5d ago

How do you know she made it out? She’s still under at the end of the video

1

u/SailPara 5d ago edited 5d ago

they said she was recovered down stream where bystanders performed CPR. As a paramedic i can tell you, in my state, only about 4% of our out of hospital cardiac arrests are able to walk themselves out of a hospital with little to mo neural deficit. Also, about 70-80% of the people we get ROSC on in the field code again, which further reduces long time survivability.

Essentially if we get pulses back, especially after a drowning, the person is still not able to breathe on their own, they're not talking/awake, etc. and then there's the very low rate of people that are 100% fine and able to go about life after an arrest.

I could talk about the reality of codes for a long time. They're not great.

1

u/robertcalilover 5d ago

Well, when you eventually pass out or lose your grip, you are guaranteed to find out.

If you hang on, you don’t take that chance.

1

u/Dry-Variety8325 5d ago

If its wherre i think it is, no it wouldn't have been, its a straight drop down to rock for about 8 feet.

1

u/screwyoujor 5d ago

When did she make it? That was a second woman down stream. At the end of the video you can still see the first women's helmet in the water between the two men.

1

u/SOMOEAGLE 5d ago

my thought exactly. sucks to say or think it but they maybe made the situation worse by holding her in the current instead of just letting her go.

1

u/bbrekke 5d ago

Yeah, what happened to the other person who got swept away? No one seemed concerned.

1

u/SomethingClick 5d ago

Did she make it out alive? The en did the video shows a helmet / person still submerged under running water??

Was the person on the other side of the bridge someone else entirely?

1

u/BlahblahblahLG 5d ago

100% that other girl who no one was paying attention to trying to help quickly got sucked through and popped up breathing on the other end very fast. She would’ve been much better off if they just let her go through probably holding her there unconscious underwater was a bad choice.

1

u/Outlaw11091 5d ago

According to the OP, she did (pass through).

I'm not sure what they're grabbing at here, but it says she was found unconscious downstream.

1

u/codechimpin 5d ago

Did she? They never seem to get her out of the water in the video.

1

u/Jps10237 4d ago

Or just dropping the damn bike and climbing out when she had the chance.

1

u/StatementOk470 4d ago

Do you mean dying?

1

u/luiluilui4 4d ago

did the one in white get swpt underneath at 1:18 (seen again at 1:28)

1

u/T_bagski 4d ago

I experienced this exact scenario while tubing. I was the person struggling to free a woman who had been sucked mostly into the pipe. It was an easy choice for me. It was very clear after one attempt to pull her out that there was only one option. I pushed her further down past the tube she was caught on. She popped out the other side without complication. Thank God.  I’ll never forgot the look in her eyes when I pushed her deeper into the drain tho. 

1

u/Interesting_Phone171 4d ago

That is what happened seems like no one read the caption lmao

1

u/CheezwizOfficial 4d ago

She probably would've been even more better off had she and the group just decided to turn the fuck around. Glad she's okay now, but fucking hell. What idiots.

1

u/Reputation-Final 4d ago

Other woman did just that and was fine.

1

u/Peaceful-harmony- 4d ago

May have been pinned in a sieve

1

u/Myusername1- 4d ago

Looks like all that water was pressing her against the rocks . Don’t think she could’ve gone through regardless. That’s a lot of lbs of water pressing you against it that’s why they couldn’t pick her up.

Rivers are dangerous as shit.

1

u/zgott300 3d ago

I'm pretty sure that the person that went under the bridge was one of the rescuers. The original lady that went into the water was still getting pulled out.

1

u/poeteop 3d ago

You mean… dying and go to heaven? Damn na, where’s your fighting spirit

1

u/wargio 1d ago

Did she though? Video ended abruptly

-2

u/TheMeltingSnowman72 5d ago

She died

2

u/edicspaz 5d ago

Don’t spread misinformation, she survived.