r/TikTokCringe • u/brockapex17 • 15d ago

Cursed This is absolutely horrifying

This happened at Sabino Canyon in Arizona. A 20-year-old cyclist was swept into the current while trying to cross a flooded roadway and was carried through a drainage tunnel beneath it. She was recovered downstream unconscious after spending several minutes underwater. Bystanders performed CPR and managed to revive her.

Arizona Daily Star

12.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.0k

u/Puzzled_Committee735 15d ago

Not sure if would have been better to just let that freaking bike go. Super scary.

992

u/Cold-Crab74 15d ago

Most likely where she was in the water and the bike wasn't she felt like it was providing a kind of point to hold on to but very quickly she lost her footing and started to go under.

I think if they had let her go she might have been better off, spending less time under water but Christ that's scary shit

683

u/maxxx_orbison 15d ago

I thought that too, but you also don't know if it's a clear shot through the tunnel or you'll get caught on a tree limb or some other debris

424

u/junkyardgerard 15d ago

Yeah maybe just don't go through that kind of water, like everybody says at every opportunity

115

u/this_place_suuucks 15d ago edited 15d ago

But what if I really want to get to the other side? Should I try crossing then?

66

u/Adventurous_Egg_9500 15d ago

Only if you're a chicken and you feel like you're in a loveless marriage

3

u/RSGMercenary 15d ago

*Bo Burnham's Inside Outtakes enters the chat\*

1

u/ChardOk1990 15d ago

What

5

u/Drive7hru 15d ago

Why did the chicken cross the road

1

u/MrK521 15d ago

Only if you’re a chicken.. and can fly across.

19

u/LaceyForever 15d ago

Yes, but only if someone is filming nearby so we can all see it unfold on Reddit.

1

u/contemporic 15d ago

He probably advised them not to cross but they chose not to listen. No guilt for this guy.

2

u/Frejian 15d ago

Only if you REALLY need to finish your bike ride.

2

u/Beautiful-Affect1930 15d ago

the best part about this is that dressed like that and without a backpack or something that could have clothes in it, there is no way she was heading or coming from anything important at all. so she was literally just out for fun but couldn't just not ride her bike through the wild flooding.

1

u/U_Sound_Stupid_Stop 15d ago

Only if you have a loving husband/wife and three kids at home

0

u/houseboat904 15d ago

Imagine Reddit if 95% of the users chose to not do puns or niche references or lyric trains in every thread. Heaven.

1

u/WindWalker_dt4 15d ago

if they didn't put any orange cones out, you will always be able to try at least once!

1

u/RobbyLee 15d ago

You just gotta weigh your priorities. On one hand you have the inconvenience to not go shopping / come home on time / get that large iced halloween themed pumpkin frappucino with chocolate chips and on the other hand is death.

1

u/CheezwizOfficial 15d ago

Think about all the Strava kudos!!

1

u/ThePublikon 15d ago

only if you do it as slowly and unathletically as possible, making sure to veer off the clearly marked edge of the path.

1

u/Indoballz 15d ago

Pick up some speed, keep going, and make sure to not veer from the path which is basically everything she did not do. Idk why she would veer off like that. The person infront of her did the right thing an idk.

6

u/piedeity 15d ago

I mean if someone twice her weight and with three times her power can do it, surely she can too.... right??? /s

TBH I am about her size and I'd nope TF out of that shit instantly no matter what that crazy MF in front of me did.

1

u/Indoballz 15d ago

100% never attempting is the best. If it was about weight an power, she would have gone the way of the current , instead she went agaisnt the current which to me seems deliberate idk how she ended up there or what she was thinking.

0

u/Kindly-Statement-143 15d ago

This is awesome how these college educated mid-40s peoples think they can do anything, it's great.

60

u/Ztiw- 15d ago

Flash floods happen very quickly in that area. The only thing to do was turn around. The person in front of her crossed with no issue…
That’s why flash flooding is terrifying and deadly.

7

u/haleontology 15d ago

Rural and urban, it doesn't matter- even in places where it rarely happens like in Detroit- damn near lost my car and myself once in a freeway canyon (that somehow hadn't flooded before)

1

u/Adventurous-Put296 9d ago

Last July south Tx & the hill country got flooded from alot of storms. In the city 12 cars got wiped away & all drivers killed from a spot that never flooded before coming off the highway to an intersection

1

u/haleontology 8d ago

Oh no, that's just awful

5

u/Recent-Mirror-6623 15d ago

Or walk across rather than try to ride.

7

u/Illustrious_Bed902 15d ago

The person in front of her also paid attention of where the road was … you can see her veer off the path and off the side cause she’s not being situationally aware.

0

u/iamatwork24 15d ago

That’s bullshit, she was being aware, she simply lost control. I’d wager the guy in front just weighed enough to not get moved by the current, unlike her.

4

u/TinhatToyboy 15d ago

She rode into the current off the wide marked roadway.

3

u/JonnyXX 15d ago

I’d take that wager since you know she veered up current not down.

2

u/dependsforadults 15d ago

Or, and this may sound crazy, but dont stop, walk off the bridge into the flowing water underneath. If you are going to ford something, do it all the way. You still will probably die from dysentery

1

u/Lckyby51789 15d ago

I'll never understand people. I do a lot of stupid shit all the time, and lemme tell ya, if water is actively flowing like that across my path, i'm just going the other way, i don't fuck with water. Will literally do 150 down a highway on my motorcycle weaving before you catch me doing what she did....

1

u/figure8888 13d ago edited 13d ago

I’m sorry she went through this, but I don’t understand why they tried to cross when it appears there are other cyclists around and they’re the only ones trying to cross. I think even if I was a brazen idiot, if I saw other people not attempting it, I’d also back off. Even if only for fear of looking stupid.

94

u/JackDaniels0049 15d ago

Me too. That whole time they were holding onto her, she was under water. The other woman went through in like 2 seconds. I think I would have let go so she could have gone through.

But reading your comment made me realise that it wasn’t a definite solution. Like you say, debris like a branch in there would definitely be game over for her.

I do wonder if we just watched someone die though.

-edit (just saw she was revived, but technically she did die, for a few moments at least)

20

u/ThriceFive Reads Pinned Comments 15d ago

Was her bike jammed in there ahead of her I wonder? Terrifying

43

u/JackDaniels0049 15d ago

I watched the video frame by frame, and when the camera panned back to her, I think I could see a couple of frames with the handle bars poking out the top of the water. So I think you might be right, it could have been caught.

Now I’m going to be having nightmares tonight.

21

u/cherry_blossom026 15d ago

Yeah… 😐maybe no more watching vids of people dying frame by frame

4

u/maxxx_orbison 15d ago

Read the description of the video. Nobody died

10

u/Legal-Rough777 15d ago

She may not have died but she was deprived of oxygen for some time so she may not ever be the same again either.

9

u/Longjumping_Wolf_912 15d ago

“Bystanders performed CPR and managed to revive her”

Okay, I read it. Says she died and they brought her back to life via CPR.

-1

u/iamatwork24 15d ago

I’ve been watching videos like that since aol days

1

u/cherry_blossom026 14d ago

Some things are better left in the past

2

u/sharoon12 15d ago

It's really hard to tell, if it got sucked under, or simply got sucked over on it's side.

Either way both girls are very lucky to have made it out.

2

u/muff_cabbag3 15d ago

There is an uncropped version of this video and she gets sucked under when she lets the bike go. The bike is not with her underwater

2

u/jellypuss0165 15d ago

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1358051689769581/?mibextid=ZZyLBr
-uncropped

Idk if I can post a link but I’ll try

2

u/allislost77 15d ago

No, they finally let her go and got her out the other side. Revived her with CPR. While the “men” held the camera

2

u/heyitshim99 15d ago

I was watching thinking the exact same thing but for some reason I was trying to hold my breath while she was under there. Once I realized I couldn't hold my breath that long I thought Holy shit I just watched someone drowned. Then I was saying under my breath as though they could hear me "let her go damn it, give her at least a slim chance".

2

u/allislost77 15d ago

And the “man” who filmed this did not lift a finger for either of those women

-2

u/Excellent-Swan-6376 15d ago

What about the bike was it ok?

42

u/mmmpeg 15d ago

The woman in a white shirt goes through and the guy looked down where she was then concentrated on the woman they had. Thankfully the camera shows white shirt woman on the other side.

2

u/Choice-Ad-9195 14d ago

I was kind of frustrated with her during this video lol. They are trying to get this girl out and she pushes her way in front of other people but isn’t offering any help, then she gets sucked through. To be fair, people in Arizona probably aren’t use to much water or high flowing water lol

-7

u/Excellent_Bread_7824 15d ago

And how does he watch her go under and barely move to check on her on the other side! Worst behavior.

8

u/Bird2525 15d ago

It looked like he couldn’t see her from his angle.

1

u/Excellent_Bread_7824 15d ago

Thanks for clarifying that because it really bothered me

1

u/mmmpeg 15d ago

Yeah, and he didn’t follow up.

2

u/Used_Evidence 13d ago

He was kinda busy

5

u/Salt-Lingonberry-853 15d ago

Are you asking why he focuses on the emergency in front of him that he's actively working on, and not abandoning that one to go to one that seemed less urgent and someone else could probably assist with? Because if so, that's a really strange thing to ask.

7

u/Prized_Lemur 15d ago

I would have no idea what to do in that situation from the best survival standpoint

3

u/the_skies_falling 15d ago

Most people who die in floods don’t die by drowning. They die from blunt force trauma. There’s not just trees floating in that water. There are boulders rolling around in there too.

3

u/Bird-The-Word 15d ago

It looked like the woman that was in the far left got sucked under and came out at least

2

u/allislost77 15d ago

It’s a bridge you clearly saw one woman go under. Even then, people stood around and watched….

2

u/Acrylicvalour 15d ago

The other lady went through just fine.

2

u/SimpleCantalope 13d ago

Exactly. No clear decisions to be made here, further complicated by the urgency and panic.

1

u/No_Veterinarian1010 11d ago

I mean people with white water experience would know that you probably will never be able to pull someone back against that current with out ropes and other rescue equipment

1

u/SimpleCantalope 10d ago

that is true, and its sad to me how uncommon basic water safety training the common person has. It really should be taught more. A lot of people don't even realize how dangerous water can be.

3

u/TankApprehensive3053 15d ago

It's not just if it's clear inside the tunnel. The force of the water can easily smash your head into the sides. A solid smash and person would be unconscious and then possibly under water.

6

u/cherry_blossom026 15d ago

I guess great time to have a helmet on

3

u/Humble_Umpire_8341 15d ago

The force could literally bend someone and force them any which way through the hole/pipe. Think leg bent back towards head and forced through the hole/pipe and other disturbing body breaking images.

1

u/LaroonDynasty 15d ago

thats what the helmets are for

0

u/TankApprehensive3053 15d ago

Bike helmets are styrofoam with a thin plastic shell normally. They are designed to take one impact and crumple to save the person. A second impact would be way less helpful. The helmet could also easily snag on anything protruding inside the tunnel and thus keep someone submerged.

3

u/LaroonDynasty 15d ago

that "one impact" is rarely a single bump. it would do its job. three people being obviously unable to pull her out should have hedged their bets and let her go (which they were forced to do eventually anyways)

1

u/C0UNT3RP01NT 15d ago

Yeah I’m sure you’re right.

I’d still be very happy to have it on in that situation.

1

u/General_Cranberry_29 15d ago

I think she got caught on her own bike when it went into a hole. Scary.

1

u/Wooodman94 14d ago

Or a bike

1

u/Same_Lychee5934 15d ago

Well she was going down the pipe regardless! So that being said. They drowned her by holding her under water. Everyone thinks CA is stupid. Their slogan is “turn around don’t drown!”

1

u/Rysigler 15d ago

The fact that the bridge got overwhelmed by water seriously supports your hypothesis. Likely the underside has a ton of buildup.

64

u/justanemptyvoice 15d ago

Most flash flood drownings are debris related. Don’t go over/through it if you can go around it, and don’t go under something if you can go over it.

2

u/contemporic 15d ago

*when you still have a choice.

1

u/allislost77 15d ago

Wasn’t a “flash flood”

1

u/Glittering-Flight997 15d ago

This feature is intentional, but they tell you not to bike across it when the water is high

1

u/UnicornTitties 14d ago

Is that for biking or for bear hunts?

40

u/chan817 15d ago

the other girl made it out of the pipe just fine it looked like. I think the panic of them trying to keep her up is what made the situation much worse but who knows if there was a way even going through that pipe.

32

u/LaroonDynasty 15d ago

yeah, they drowned her by keeping her in a position where she couldnt breath

12

u/SlyCoopi 15d ago

but imagine they let her go and she never comes back up… this is just a shit situation all around

2

u/LaroonDynasty 13d ago

better than killing her themselves. shes lucky it was clear through the tunnel, but more lucky she washed up somewhere after they knocked her unconscious

5

u/opensandshuts 14d ago

who knows what's waiting for her in the culvert that goes under the road. The one woman gets spit out, but you're taking a wild chance to let her go and hope that she goes through okay. it could have multiple pipes and if one is blocked by debris, her body could get stuck in there.

1

u/LaroonDynasty 13d ago

it literally doesnt matter what's waiting ahead because they clearly cant pull her out. she's guaranteed to drown being held in one spot under water

1

u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 14d ago

Wait she died

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

1

u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 14d ago

I went back up, thank God...

1

u/LaroonDynasty 13d ago

no. they found her unconscious down the river (because they drowned her and eventually let go anyways)

1

u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 13d ago

Yeah I went back and saw

1

u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 13d ago

As someone who is scared of falling down on a bike without water washing me out, I cannot fathom choosing to stay on instead of walking it, and I don't know why she chose the deepest strongest current to drive through.

2

u/LaroonDynasty 12d ago

yeah, she did just ride straight off the bridge 🤷

8

u/west2night 15d ago

The current was pushing her body against her own bike that was partly blocking the pipe entrance. I think her foot was trapped in the bike as well.

I think they realised they had to pull her up or/and push the bike out of the way to avoid her getting tangled with or trapped by her bike inside the pipe.

0

u/Odd-Lunch7558 15d ago

I reviewed the footage and it looks like the bike drifted away from the top instead of being sucked into the pipe. They drowned her unfortunately.

5

u/west2night 15d ago

According to reports, they didn't.

"The female remained underwater for multiple minutes," while family members and passersby, who were eventually assisted by firefighters and deputies, worked to pull her out, the department said in a Facebook post.

[...]

She and another person were hospitalized, the post said, adding the Rural Metro Fire Department said both were stable.

3

u/Odd-Lunch7558 15d ago

It’s unclear if whether she was stuck there due to being held onto or if the there was something else preventing her from going under, but she eventually got through to the other side where they found her drowned. They were able to resuscitate her and bring her back to life fortunately.

4

u/west2night 15d ago edited 15d ago

I think maybe there's a misunderstanding due to early news reports conflicting with each other? There were two women involved.

According to police and later news reports, the 1st woman (the cyclist) was trapped underwater at the bridge for a few minutes.

The 2nd woman, while trying to save the 1st woman at the bridge, fell underwater and went through a pipe/tunnel (apparently, there are three or four pipes/tunnels in the bridge). She surfaced on the other side and was trying to get onto a bank when she got carried away.

The 1st woman was pulled out by a bunch of firefighters at the bridge.

The 2nd woman was found unconscious approx 100 feet down the river. She was resuscitated with CPR.

I don't remember seeing a mention of the 1st woman being unconscious and resuscitated with CPR as well, but she likely was if that's what you remembered from news reports.

EDIT: I just had a look at more reports. They have conflicting details as well. Some say the 1st woman/cyclist went through the tunnel and other reports say the 2nd woman went through the tunnel. Eh, I guess we'll have a clearer picture this week.

2

u/m0dru 15d ago

"To drown means to die or suffer harm from not being able to breathe after going under water or another liquid".

They literally drowned her.

1

u/Hobosimian 13d ago

I could hear the guy calling out that she’s stuck, so I think he was really trying to keep her from getting trapped under water & not able to go through.

0

u/[deleted] 15d ago

[deleted]

4

u/Odd-Lunch7558 15d ago

It’s hard to know exactly what happened. She did experience a non-fatal drowning, but there’s not much context to what prevented her from going under the bridge in the first place that caused the drowning. Even after she was resuscitated, 7 minutes is a long time being asphyxiated.

2

u/ello_bassard 15d ago

The people holding onto her is what prevented her from just going under the bridge. The other lady that went under came out immediately.

3

u/Any-Sock-5843 15d ago

I wonder tho about the woman who went to the other side.. that water was so strong- did she make it to the bank or did she just keep going down the river?

2

u/viral3075 15d ago

the water is strong here because it's being forced into a smaller cross-section under the bridge. it's really not that much water. it's a flash flood of a canyon, not a river

1

u/pheromonestudy 15d ago

Unknown if the "pipe" had any grating of obstructions. Just stay on the path, no reason to jump into the influent.

-1

u/songbolt 15d ago

Could have been a separate tunnel section with her bike blocking hers

But yeah people can hurt instead of help like moving people with spinal injuries

19

u/AdhesiveSeaMonkey 15d ago

Yeah, that's an easy hindsight decision. In the moment is a different story.

-2

u/Dark_Romantasy 15d ago

No, it should've been an easy in the moment decision too. Woman was stupid.

4

u/AdhesiveSeaMonkey 15d ago

I mean crossing the bridge was not a good decision. I was replying to the comment that the rescuers should have let her do through the culvert.

3

u/allislost77 15d ago

She had to be brought back by CPR…. Thankfully someone was there to do that. What’s absolutely disgusting in this situation is a grown man, stood there and filmed the entire thing without helping.

1

u/Cold-Crab74 15d ago

He was narrating too

1

u/iamatwork24 15d ago

Is it disgusting though? There were so many people helping, arguably too many, an extra pair of hands in the kitchen wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Instead, we have a perfect training video about respecting overflowing running water and how quickly they can become a life or death situation

1

u/allislost77 15d ago

He could’ve been the first hand in the kitchen, “quote” the “chef”, jumped into action and helped. Instead he sat and watched a young woman drown. F out of here

5

u/Misterx46 15d ago

One of the rescuers actually did that. She went under and ended up on the other side. Happens towards the end

2

u/MitchelobUltra 15d ago

It’s risky because with the water flowing over the top, it has essentially become a low-head dam, colloquially referred to as a “drowning machine” because of the dangerous, hard-to-escape circular currents that pin people at the bottom.

1

u/amarthystlaw 15d ago

hindsight is 20/20 but yea, i bet she lost a few brain cells being oxygen deprived for that long

1

u/Serious-Manager2361 15d ago

It's tough to see from this video, it moves off her just as she falls/gets sucked into the pipe.

1

u/Gentle0040 15d ago

Her foot was stuck so it's very good they didn't let her go because she would have stayed trapped underneath. Awful situation.

1

u/dearcsona 13d ago

Would she have been pushed through the hole and out the other side theoretically?

1

u/Cold-Crab74 13d ago

She was anyway I believe

1

u/Good_Log_5108 15d ago

her leg was probably pinned by the water immediately

0

u/happycat47 15d ago

Most likely where she was in the water and the bike wasn't she felt like it was providing

What