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Woman Grateful To Be OK After I-95 Crash Monday

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A chain reaction crash that backed up traffic for hours Monday on I-95 is still under investigation.  Tuesday, one of the passengers who walked away is giving thanks to all who helped pull her from the wreckage.

Mary Bubala has more.

The accident on southbound I-95 near Washington Boulevard will best be remembered for this: a BMW dangling over the side of a jersey barrier on the edge of the I-95 overpass. Minutes before, Kelly Rogers Burke was in her Subaru when a tractor-trailer hit her and her car hit the flat-bed tow truck transporting the broken-down BMW. The impact pushed the sports car off the side.

"I saw people pulling over and rushing over to help us," she said.

Burke, the owner of John Stevens Tavern in Fells Point, is reaching out to all the drivers who stopped to help and to the emergency responders.

"All the emergency personnel were wonderful, as well. The paramedics, the firefighters, the police officers, the transportation authorities--so many people were involved in this and they were very good to us and we can't thank them enough," she said.

WJZ tracked down the emergency responders who helped Burke and relayed her thanks. They work for Engine Company 23 and Rescue 1--the busiest firehouse in the nation.

"It's really nice to get some feedback from the community. We see them in a really bad time of need and to turn around and to hear that they are happy with what we did," said Engine Company 23 Battalion Chief Karl Zimmerman.

No doubt the owner of the BMW is also very happy with the job Lt. Tim Hamilton did. He was on the ladder, making sure the car didn't plunge to the ground below.

"I went up and took the windows out as gingerly as possible, looped the webbing through there but as I was doing it, you could see the car bouncing up and down. It was held by a cable that was a diameter of my pinky. That's all that was holding the car on there," Hamilton said.

The BMW was eventually lifted back onto I-95. Traffic was at a standstill for more than two hours.

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