Woman says divine intervention saved life

Photo Courtesy of Mark Crosse, Fresno Bee Newspaper AFTERMATH—Officials examine the wreckage on Route 180 near Fresno in which Oak Park resident Christina Cochran escaped with minor injuries. “I have no idea why the Lord saved me,” she said. Christina Cochran sat in the borrowed Mercury Sable trying to understand what had just happened.

The 20-year-old Oak Park resident looked down to find the airbag sagging across her lap and then glanced up to see tree branches blocking the car’s windshield.

The last thing she remembered was driving down Highway 180, a winding mountainside road east of Fresno, around 9:30 a.m. on Mon., July 25.

Cochran was on her way to a physical therapy appointment, driving down the mountain from her summer job at Hume Lake Christian Camp.

That’s when it happened. She turned a corner to find an 18wheeler leaning heavily and veering into her lane. The truck’s massive cab was headed straight for her.

Cochran slammed on her brakes, closed her eyes and held on for dear life. Cochran said she felt the impact, but remembers very little about the actual collision.

Only when she noticed the car’s airbag did she realize what had just happened. Cochran was in a head-on collision with a bigrig truck, and how she survived is indeed a miracle.

Amazingly, Cochran was in still one piece, but something didn’t feel right. In a second she understood what was different— her car was on its side.

Not only was the car sideways, but in a tree nearly 20 feet down the highway embankment. If not for the tree, the only one along that stretch of road, Cochran’s car would have fallen nearly 100 feet to the canyon’s rocky floor below.

“I knew I had been hit,” Cochran said. “But I knew I hadn’t been killed. . .that’s when I heard the semi-truck still running, and I thought I had to get out of the car because you always see in the movies cars exploding after an accident when the engine is still running. I needed to get out of the car.”

Cochran carefully climbed out of the driver side window and pulled herself up the rocky embankment. She stepped on the highway blacktop to find the white big-rig lying on its side. The truck’s trailer hung off the cliff and the engine was still running.

Cochran said she was shocked to find the truck driver dead inside the truck’s bent and twisted cab. Shaken, Cochran kneeled on the pavement and said a prayer for both herself and the dead driver.

A passenger inside the truck suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said the truck was was delivering food to the camp where Cochran works.

Nearly two weeks after the accident, Cochran still doesn’t understand how she survived but the truck’s driver did not.

“There’s no way I can describe what happened except that God’s hand was on me,” Cochran said. Aside from a cut on her left arm, she left the accident scene unharmed. No broken bones, no concussion—nothing.

Cochran, a student at Pepperdine University and a 2003 graduate of Oaks Christian High School, said the only reason she survived was because God must have had another plan for her.

“My life could have easily ended right there,” Cochran said. “I have no idea why or how the Lord saved me, but it wasn’t my time to go. I’m not sure of my purpose or plan yet, but I know He has something more for me to do.”

Cochran said her belief in divine intervention is further supported by the fact that the first car to arrive on the scene was driven by an emergency medical technician who was able to provide medical help. The second person to stop was a local fireman.

Talk about luck, or was it something more?

Cochran borrowed a cell phone and called her boss at the camp, Chuck Colburn, who picked her up and drove her back to the camp.

It wasn’t until later that day that the emotional impact of the accident finally caught up with Cochran.

“I was pretty calm during the whole thing,” Cochran said. “I guess it was because I had no one else to cry to. I never really lost it until I got back up to Hume.”

Cochran said the phone call to her parents started off very similar to the one she made in early July after she had broken her right wrist while working at the camp.

Ironically, Cochran was on her way to physical therapy to rehabilitate her broken wrist when the traffic accident occurred.

“When I called my mom, I basically said, ‘Mom, I’m okay. But. . .,’” Cochran said. “My mom told me how much she wished she could have been there to give me a hug.”

Christina’s mother, Denise Cochran, said the call from her daughter caused mixed emotions.

“When you get a call like that, there is such a combination of thought that goes through your mind,” Denise said. “You are first hit with the terror and horror of the situation and then you start rejoicing that God saved her from a horrible, horrible accident.”

Denise said she spent the next week with a knot in her stomach, and she didn’t feel better until she saw her daughter.

Christina will continue to work at the camp until later this month when she returns to Pepperdine.

She said the experience has filled her with a new appreciation for life.

“Every minute you are here is so precocious,” Christina said. “You just have to live it to the fullest because every moment counts. And I think about that everyday.”

Christina lives in Oak Park with her parents, Robert and Denise, and her two brothers– Robbie, 19, and Kevin, 15.

The Cochrans have been parishioners at Agoura Bible Fellowship for almost 20 years.