The love for her family keeps Bluff great gran determined to live

THE love for her family, especially her grandchildren is what kept 72-year-old Bluff great-granny motivated to stay alive as she fought her way out of her sinking car during the horrendous Durban Storm that flooded the M7.
On her way home during the height of the storm, Muriel Commins was trapped in vehicle in the worst hit part of the Durban South area, at the corner of Edwin Swales Drive and Titren Road in Rossburgh for about two hours. Despite a bad back and a bad knee and her claustrophobia, this brave woman fought against every odd to survive and refused to give up hope as the murky brown water quickly filled her car. “It was like a raging river and I tried to get to higher grounds because the car was already underwater. I sat on the backseat and I watched the water come in and I’m thinking ‘oh my God here comes trouble’. It was pouring with rain. Being claustrophobic did not enter my mind, all I could think about was getting out of there,” she said.
She tried to call her family but the storm hindered them from getting to Muriel. “They were traumatised, probably more than me because they couldn’t get to me and they knew the inevitable was likely,” she added.

READ: Paramedic recounts pulling motorists out of M7 #DurbanStorm floodwater [VIDEO]
Her son, Grant said the last call to her was to find out exactly where she was. “It was frustrating, I needed to know where she was. She was calm at first then started screaming because the car started floating towards the canal. I was trapped in my own situation and couldn’t get out to help her. I called my former colleagues from SAPS search and rescue and the RTI office at the testing grounds where the car was but nobody could get to her. My dad and brother couldn’t get to her. Do you know what it’s like to feel helpless?” he said.
Ideas flooded her mind as she reached for anything that could possibly break her windows. With the water now up to her chest height, she pulled out the headrest of the driver’s seat and began to beat the window using its steel pins, but it refused to budge. She then put her head beneath the water to look for a spanner in the hatchback boot behind the back seats but it was inaccessible under the spare wheel.

The water rose to her chin.

In light of her phobia, her window is always slightly open and using the headrest again, she tried to free herself, knowing she had just minutes to spare. She finally pried the window open and smashed it with the head rest. “Finally it gave way. I used my foot to clear the glass and with pure determination, and a will to survive, I pulled my sore body up onto the roof. I was terrified, as I sat on my roof, which was starting to give in. I cried to God for help, I cried for my children, I didn’t want to die there. I thought about my grandchildren alot and I wondered what they would do without me.

My mind wandered to my grandson Jevyne and I called out to him. The reason I survived and not succumb is because I kept myself going, I knew it was not my time” she said.
While on the roof she noticed people videoing her with their phones and she screamed for them to help. They tried to throw a rope to her without luck. She then saw a container truck slowly come towards her and she told the bystanders to throw the tow rope to the driver, who was much closer.”
The tow rope had a heavy end to it and the driver was afraid he was going to hurt me but eventually he threw and I caught it,” she recalled. She tied it around her waist and was pulled to safety in the truck. While they were driving to a safe area, she saw a fire truck coming towards them, who were responding to help the people trapped on the M7.