UPDATED: Police Rescue Ames High Student from Crash

An Ames High School student was happily on her way to a Spring Break vacation in Florida Friday after nearly dying this week.

Elizabeth Funk, 16, was heading south on University Boulevard about 3:50 p.m. Wednesday when Diana Barnard, 42, who was heading north on the same road, made a left turn onto Mortensen Road striking Funk's 2004 Honda Civic.

The Honda careened over the shoulder and slid 20 feet down a ravine landing in a creek on its top. The windshield broke during the accident and water began to rush in, said Ames Police CMDR. Geoff Huff. Funk contorted her upper body trying to keep her head above water as she hung upside down and could feel the button on her seatbelt and tried to push it, but it wouldn't release, Huff said.

Huff said Funk made the statement that she thought she was taking her last breath. But Officer John Barney who was near Jack Trice Stadium arrived quickly. He stripped off his gun belt and ran into the water and was able to cut the seatbelt with a knife just before Funk's head went under water, Huff said.

She was released from the hospital later with some scrapes and bruises, Huff said.

“She is going to be fine,” Huff said.

The accident remains under investigation.

“That kind of accident happens all the time (in Ames.) It just happened to be that it was in the wrong place,” Huff said.

Luckily Barney was nearby.

“He was at the right place, at the right time, had the right training and was able to pull her out,” Huff said.

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