Woman escapes injury after tree falls on car in Mineola

<p>Thousands are without power after severe weather blew through Long Island, but one Mineola woman says she's lucky to still have her life and limbs after a falling tree slammed into her car while she was driving.</p>

News 12 Staff

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Oct 30, 2017, 6:16 PM

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Updated 2,608 days ago

Thousands are without power after severe weather blew through Long Island, but one Mineola woman says she's lucky to still have her life and limbs after a falling tree slammed into her car while she was driving.

Garden City resident June Reiter was on her way to pick up her son from pre-kindergarten when she turned from East Old Country Road to Wetherill Road, she says. Then a tree broke apart and fell on her car.

"As soon as I completed the turn, a tree fell onto the car and stopped the car dead in its tracks," she says. "Kind of like a trampoline, and then it just remained still."

The falling limb trapped her in the car, but a group of neighbors helped her out unharmed.

"There were at least six gentlemen that stopped and tried to figure out how to get me out," she says. "They held up the branch, the main branch, and I was able to squeeze out of the car."

First responders arrived a short while later as neighbors comforted Reiter and others marveled about how she made it out without getting hurt.

"I think it's, I'd say, short of a miracle," says Charles Hickson, of Mineola. "She's an extremely lucky woman."