A teenager said a tree stopped his vehicle from sliding into the river after he went off the road on Glenn Milner Boulevard around 4 p.m. Saturday.

Seventeen-year-old Eric Montgomery said he was coming around the curve in the rain and was trying to stop when his Honda started fishtailing and slid down the embankment. The vehicle ended up on its side and Montgomery was able to get out on his own. He was walking around after the wreck with bandages on his hand. 

“The only thing that saved me from falling into the river was that tree,” Montgomery said. “Other than that I would have been inside the river. I probably would have died.

Kevin Karel, sports director for Rome Radio Partners, was behind Montgomery’s vehicle and stopped to help him.

“Probably some combination of the rain and the big curve and he seemed to lose control and started to spin and all of the sudden the car just disappeared over the embankment,” Karel said. “It was really terrifying to watch.”

Rome police are investigating the wreck. 

(WRGA)