Woman buried in bog making good recovery

A CHAMPION horsewoman who incredibly survived 34 hours buried in her car in a bog is making a good recovery from her ordeal.

Lisa Landau, who survived two days in a car almost fully submerged in a boghole in Co Wicklow, remains in St Columcille’s Hospital, Loughlinstown, Dublin, where she is being treated for hypothermia and pneumonia.

A hospital spokesperson yesterday said Ms Landau, who gardaí said was “freezing and in a bad condition” when she was found, was now comfortable and making a good recovery.

Ms Landau, a super-fit horsewoman, survived by breathing through an air pocket she managed to find near the brake pedal.

Her near-miraculous rescue began when local cabinetmaker Cheim Factor was passing near Ballylusk Quarry in Ashford, Co Wicklow, when he noticed bark missing from a tree and went to investigate. He parked his car, climbed up on to a bank and saw Ms Landau’s car overturned in the water.

“There was only the undercarriage of the car,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

“You could see the back bumper and number plate but the front bumper was submerged in water and the rest of the car was submerged.

“I climbed down the bank and jumped onto the car to check if the driver’s door had been opened.

“When I saw it wasn’t I reached down into the water to see if the window had been opened and that maybe the driver had got out through the window.”

He said he presumed the occupant of the car was either unconscious or dead, and called the gardaí who attended the scene. After the car was pulled out of the ditch he said he saw a leg hanging down and that Ms Landau was found propping herself up on the steering column.

“She was getting air, I presume, through the hole where the pedal goes out into the water,” he said.

“Lisa was actually propping herself on the steering column and her head was up where the accelerator and brake pedals are and was only semi-conscious.

“I think she was near death, to be honest. She was purple with the cold,” he said.

Mr Factor said he knew Ms Landau, who celebrated her 39th birthday last Friday, but did not recognise her car.

“If I did I would have panicked a bit more. I only recognised it when we started to pull it out.”

Ms Landau’s friend Dave Cutler said yesterday she was only now beginning to realise what had happened to her.

A well-known figure in equestrian circles, Ms Landau gives riding instructions at the equestrian centre at the Bel Air Hotel near Ashford and has lived near Roundwood for 11 years.

The hotel’s owner, Fidelma Freeman, said that being a prize-winning event rider, Ms Landau must be seriously dedicated to her sport. “She is fit, she is serious and she is dedicated. That kind of discipline saved her life.”