Woman survives 34 hours submerged in bog

A man told today how he helped rescue a woman who survived 34 hours in her car submerged in a bog in Co Wicklow.

Lisa Landau, 39, was taken to hospital after the ordeal, which ended yesterday morning after cabinet maker Chaim Factor alerted gardai to the scene.

Gardai said Ms Landau was thought to have swerved off the road amid very bad driving conditions.

It is believed she survived by breathing through an air pocket in the car.

Mr Factor said he 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. 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 in water.

“I climbed down the bank and jumped on to 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 gardai who attended the scene.

After the car was pulled out of the ditch he said he saw a leg hanging down and that Lisa 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.

A police spokesman said when Ms Landau, a local woman, was found she was “freezing and in a bad condition“.

She was then taken to Loughlinstown hospital, where police said she was thought to be in a comfortable condition.