A Somerset County woman who was trapped in her vehicle after it tumbled into a creek at the bottom of a wooded hill survived the night by running the vehicle's heater and covering herself in a blanket until a hunter found her the next morning.

Stacey Gryskiewicz, 51, of Stoystown, was in fair condition last night in the intensive care unit at Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, where she was being treated for cuts and a broken jaw.

Pennsylvania state Trooper Donald A. Szarmach said Ms. Gryskiewicz was traveling north on Mostoller Road in Quemahoning at about 9 p.m. Friday when she swerved to miss a deer on the narrow, unmarked roadway.

The Ford Explorer she was driving slid off the road and flipped down the hillside, clipping trees before coming to rest on its wheels in a rocky stretch of the creek.

Trooper Szarmach said in his report that Ms. Gryskiewicz, who was wearing a seat belt, was able to keep the vehicle's engine running and, with the blanket, kept herself warm until a hunter on his way to a tree stand saw her at 6:15 a.m. Saturday.

Jim Bent, the wrecker driver who pulled the vehicle up the hillside and out of the woods, said the driver's door was severely dented and all the windows were smashed out.

"There's no guard rails there, and it was pretty steep there, about a hundred feet," said Mr. Bent, who works for J.E. Herring Motor Co. in Somerset. "And once she got started down the hill, there was no stopping."

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