HACKENSACK, N.J. — An SUV driver swerving to avoid striking another vehicle on a highway on Friday hit a snowbank along a guardrail and catapulted 60 feet off a bridge. Incredibly, authorities say, the vehicle landed upright and the two occupants suffered only minor injuries.

The Toyota Rav4 was headed east on Interstate 80 when the accident occurred Friday morning in Hackensack, police said.

The driver, Elizabeth Wolthoff, veered sideways after her vehicle was cut off, officials said. The SUV then hit a snowbank that formed after plows had pushed excess snow up against the guardrail.

The SUV flew off the bridge and landed upright beneath the Hackensack River bridge, missing the river by about 40 feet. Wolthoff and her passenger, Rebecca Winslow, called 911.

“The snowbank served almost as a ramp,” Hackensack Police Director Michael Mordaga said. “They’re very lucky the way the vehicle landed.”

State police said the women, both from Bergenfield, were wearing their seat belts.

Firefighters had to remove the passenger-side door. They slid Winslow out feet-first and eventually pulled Wolthoff out from underneath the steering wheel. Both women complained of neck and back pain and were taken to a hospital.

“It’s just shocking that you could fall that far in a car and be awake when everybody gets there, telling us what hurts,” firefighter Michael Thomasey said.