Associated Press

Sat, Nov 29, 2008 (4:42 p.m.)

A Nevada man was counting his blessings after surviving a 36-hour ordeal trapped in his crashed Jeep in the frigid Sierra Nevada.

Edward Duncan, 65, was released Saturday from a Reno hospital, where he was treated for three broken ribs and a broken wrist after being found amid the wreckage Thursday.

The Minden insurance company owner lost control of his Jeep Cherokee on U.S. 50 sometime Tuesday evening and rolled about 250 feet down a steep embankment, the Nevada Highway Patrol said.

Duncan wasn't located until a day after he was reported missing. He was freed from the vehicle by authorities and flown to the hospital for treatment. A storm Wednesday delayed the search.

Duncan's wife of 44 years, Sherrie, said Saturday that her publicity-shy husband didn't want to talk to reporters but that he felt lucky to be alive.

"He said it was really, really cold out there ... and he became especially thirsty," she told The Associated Press. "He had a cell phone but he couldn't reach it. So he kept praying that somebody would see his vehicle."

The National Weather Service said the overnight low dipped to around 30 in the area that night. Duncan was wearing only a light jacket.

He was reported missing after he failed to return home from a Lion's Club meeting at Lake Tahoe the night before.

Fellow club member Ron Santi said he knew Duncan long enough to figure something bad happened. So on Thursday, he began retracing the route he thought Duncan had taken.

It was on Santi's third pass down from Tahoe that he spotted the wreckage amid thick brush and trees from a highway turnout about five miles above Carson City.

He found Duncan lying on the inside roof of the overturned, totaled Jeep. Authorities then were notified.

"With the condition of his vehicle, I was almost afraid to look inside," Santi said. "But when I called out his name and he answered, I was overjoyed.

"He was cold, very cold to the touch. He had the look of someone suffering from hypothermia. He described that he was in quite a bit of pain," he added.

Sherrie Duncan hailed Santi, saying he helped save her husband's life. NHP troopers also said Duncan's use of a seatbelt saved him.

"Based upon the trajectory path of the vehicle traveling down such a steep embankment, coupled with the cold temperatures, Mr. Duncan was very fortunate not to have sustained more serious injuries or death," Trooper Chuck Allen told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Sherrie Duncan said her husband was looking forward to returning home but was scheduled to undergo wrist surgery on Monday.

"He seems to be in pretty good spirits," she said. "They got him up at the hospital and had him sit in the chair and walk around a bit. So he's on the mend."

The couple plan to hold a belated Thanksgiving dinner at home with family next weekend, she added.

"It'll have even more meaning this year," she said. "We're just elated how things turned out."