CARMEL – A tourist from Singapore is lucky to be alive after the rental car from which she was ejected Monday landed less than an inch from her head, pinning her clothing to the ground in several inches of water.

After she was freed from the wreckage, Sandra Li-Wen, 20, was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she received treatment for minor injuries and possible hypothermia, according to Trooper Darren Vittum of the Maine State Police.

Li-Wen, reportedly an exchange student attending a U.S. university outside Maine, was among three visitors from Singapore who were traveling from the Bar Harbor area to Freeport when the accident occurred, Vittum said.

Driver Chua Woon-Pin, 22, and Lee Bee-Hui, 21, who was a passenger in the back seat of the rental car, also were taken to EMMC.

None of the victims was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, the trooper said.

The accident occurred about 2:40 p.m. in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Carmel, Vittum said.

The driver lost control of the 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt he was driving while “looking around in the vehicle for something,” Vittum said.

Vittum said the vehicle was traveling at an “extremely high rate of speed” when it left the roadway, went down an embankment and then briefly went airborne and rolled – ejecting Li-Wen before landing.

The front driver-side tire landed within half an inch of Li-Wen’s head, pinning her jacket to the ground in an area that had about 8 to 10 inches of icy water.

“She should be dead,” the trooper said.

According to Vittum, the victims were taken to EMMC by emergency medical personnel from Carmel Fire and Rescue and the Bangor Fire Department.

A Maine Department of Transportation employee who was working nearby with a chain saw was called to the scene to help clear a path through the brush and trees growing along the interstate.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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