‘We’re lucky to be alive’: Women recount slamming head-on into water buffalo at 52 mph

STOCKHOLM, N.Y. (WWNY/Gray News) - Two New York women say they are lucky to be alive after they crashed head-on into a water buffalo on their way home from a church event.Kristen Rozelle, 50, was driving Lindsey Baker, 27, home from a church event around 7 p.m. Saturday when their Jeep collided head-on with a water buffalo in the town of Stockholm.“If you look at my Jeep, we’re lucky to be alive. Literally, if I did not have a Jeep Limited, I’d be dead,” Rozelle said.Rozelle said she was traveling 52 mph before hitting the water buffalo that weighed about 2,300 pounds, according to a state trooper. She said it felt like hitting a freight train.“All of a sudden, I just see black. I didn’t see anything at all. And then, boom,” she said. “We didn’t know it was even there.”“I’m like, ‘What did we hit?’” Baker said.Good Samaritans helped after the crashRozelle said she passed out briefly after the crash. When she came to, smoke from the deployed airbags made her think the Jeep was on fire.