Two New York women are thanking a higher power after they slammed into a huge water buffalo on their way home from church and lived to tell about it.
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Kristen Rozelle, 50, and Lindsey Baker, 27, told local outlet WWNY all about their run-in with the huge animal.
"If you look at my Jeep, like, we're lucky to be alive. Literally, if I did not have a Jeep Limited, I'd be dead," Rozelle, a Norwood resident who was driving, gushed, sounding a bit like an ad for the Jeep Limited.
The seemingly divinely protected duo were on their way home from a church service on Oct. 16 at about 7 pm when the incident happened.
"I, all of a sudden, just see black," Rozelle added. "I didn't see anything at all. And then boom."
New York Upstate reports that the women were cruising along in Rozelle's trusty Jeep at around 50 miles an hour on U.S. Route 11 in Stockholm when they crashed into the hapless water buffalo. "We didn't know it was even there," Rozelle recounted to the outlet.
Baker also recalled having no idea what they'd slammed into.
"I'm like, what did we hit?" she recounted to WWNY.
Church Going Jeep Lover Awakens to Chaotic Scene After Hitting 2,300-Pound Water Buffalo
After hitting the water buffalo, Rozelle says she passed out. She awoke to a chaotic scene of smoke, a deployed airbag, and disorientation. Luckily, the smoke was simply from the airbags themselves... her beloved Jeep didn't catch on fire.
Baker recalled her friend struggling shortly after the crash, seemingly trapped by the wreckage and the deployed airbag.
"I turned to see, and then she's panicking. She can't get out, so I checked to see if she was still buckled. She wasn't," Baker told WWNY.
"I ran into the road to get help, to wave the car down," she added. "Thankfully, there were some people who came, and I directed them to where we were."
After first responders showed up to help, a rattled Rozelle was informed by a State Trooper of what they struck: a water buffalo weighing in at around 2,300 pounds. Eyewitnesses later claimed they saw the animal jump a guardrail before getting hit by the jeep.
The two women were taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries.
Once again, Rozelle credited her Jeep with saving her and her friend's lives.
"If I was in a different vehicle, I'd be dead," Rozelle insisted. "We're alive."
Meanwhile, the water buffalo, which reportedly got loose from a nearby farm, wasn't so lucky, perishing in the collision.
