Kyra Kinnison was traveling to Salina, Kansas, on a Friday night. She was 21 years old, a junior studying animal science at Kansas State University, and driving her own car, right behind her boyfriend Dalten Grabast’s.
An obstacle appeared on K-18: a large sheet of insulation that had fallen off a truck. Dalten dodged it and stopped. Kyra also pulled over. Then another vehicle crashed into her boyfriend’s car, leaving her standing on the shoulder of an overpass with a truck speeding toward her.
There was nowhere to go. Kyra jumped backward to avoid being hit, and behind her was nothing but empty space. She fell from a height of about 21 meters, but luckily landed on a tree, avoiding death for the second time in one day.
Manhattan firefighters had to lift her from beneath the bridge using high-angle rescue equipment. She fractured her back, vertebrae, pelvis, and coccyx, and underwent surgery to realign her hips. But she wasn’t paralyzed. According to her boyfriend, less than 48 hours after the fall, she was already walking with a walker.