Indiana wreck survivor Matt Reum recounts being trapped in his truck under I-94: ‘I have to stay alive’

Zack Swets, a Portage, Ind., firefighter/paramedic, was one of the initial first responders to arrive on the scene after a call came into 911 dispatch that there was a car in a ditch under Interstate 94 and it had been there for multiple days.

The dispatcher said the driver was still alive and talking and had been stuck in his car and unable to get out.

Whatever first responders who got the call on the afternoon of Dec. 26 were expecting, said battalion chief Ross Steffel, “it wasn’t that.”

“Where the truck was and the amount of damage to it, I won’t say it caught us off guard but it took us aback. To have someone still in there talking to us was remarkable,” Steffel said.

He and other first responders didn’t know at first how long Matt Reum, 27, of South Bend, had been trapped in his pickup along Salt Creek under the interstate. That information, Steffel said, came as he and other rescuers worked to get him out of the truck.

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With humor, gravity and expletives, Reum recounted his story of survival in a lengthy interview with the Post-Tribune.

Sitting in a meeting room at the Valparaiso branch of the Porter County Library on Feb. 13, Reum offered additional details about what happened the night of Dec. 20, when he crashed his gunmetal silver 2016 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Limited, and insight into how he kept himself alive as his hope of being found began to fade and he fought against three suicide attempts over a matter of days.

“The first day, your mind almost goes into a state of, it doesn’t matter what it takes, I have to stay alive,” he said.

Reum, a welder with Boilermakers 374 in Hobart, had headed to the local’s workshop for three days to work with apprentices when he got a call the night of Dec. 20 that a friend who lived in the region had died his and funeral would be that Friday, Dec. 22, in Missouri. The call came from his friend’s mother.

Reum did some pre-Christmas window shopping at Southlake Mall in Hobart and stopped at Hooters for a couple of drinks before heading back around 10:30 p.m. to Mishawaka, where he lived at the time, so he could get ready to leave for the funeral the next day.

Though Reum usually takes the toll road east, he mistakenly got on I-80/94. He