[General] Please explain the meaning of this sentence

[Olympian]

Hello,

I am reading about the severe snow storm in the East Coast of the US.
In the online news it says:

Emergency room nurse Tiffany Lema, at Newport Hospital in Rhode Island, said her normally 45-minute commute from Cranston, just south of Providence, was an awful two hours, made all the more harrowing when her husband's truck couldn't get up and over the Newport Bridge. They made a U-turn and parked near an E-ZPass electronic toll payment office, where her father-in-law picked her up and drove her the rest of the way. ​

"I wasn't going to jump out at any point, so we just turned it around. It was kind of scary," said Lema, who planned to spend the night at the hospital with other nurses. "You could see the car in front of you but not over the hill, not over the bridge."

​

I understand from looking up on Wikipedia that one part of the Newport Bridge is very steep, so presumably they could not see over the bridge. But I did not understand what she means by "I wasn't going to jump out at any point".

Could you please explain the meaning of the above sentence in bold letters?

Thank you

 

[apex2000]

She was not going to jump out of the truck just anywhere so they made a u-turn and found a safe place to stop.

 

[Barb_D]

I don't know - I read the whole article (and I'm LIVING the situation) and I'm not sure what she meant. She wasn't going to jump out of the car? I'm just not sure.

 

[apex2000]

I'm living a similar situation too.
What is clear is that they could not proceed over the bridge. They were in a truck. What was she referring to? Not out of her skin! This is a report of what they experienced and what she might do. There is no difficulty in reading that she was not going to jump out of the truck (to get to work) as it must have been dangerous at that point.
You're in a truck; what are you going to jump out of?

 

[Barb_D]

My hesitation is to wonder why anyone for even a moment would think she MIGHT jump out of the car/truck.

People don't "get out" of their cars in that situation, let alone "jump out" so for her to say that she wasn't going to do it is perplexing.

It's like my saying "I wasn't going to rob the bank, so I just went home." Why would you think I might rob it in the first place? Why would I think she would jump out of her truck in the middle of an icy bridge in a blizzard?

 

[apex2000]

Perplexing? I don't think so. She is in the US; she is in a truck; they tend to be large and high off the ground; what is so wrong with jump?
We here in the UK would say get out of our car but if we were in an HGV we might well say jump as it requires a lot of care to manage to step down from tall vehicles, even the last step is a long way off the ground.

 

[Barb_D]

And why would ANYONE get or jump out of a car on an icy bridge in a blizzard?
My question was not about jumping or getting. It was the nonsensical nature of the suggested action in the first place.


Never mind. It doesn't bear discussing any more.

 

[Olympian]

Bard_D and apex2000, thank you. Sorry that you are going through this tough winter in the US and UK. It must be really tough. I am amazed at the visuals on TV and the photos on the Internet.

Barb_D, I am reminded of one of your responses. Perhaps she was very exhausted or affected by the circumstances, and so her words are not clear.

 

[Barb_D]

That's a good point. (However, the journalist who wrote the piece certainly had options in terms of which quote to use. I find this an odd choice... but it really doesn't matter.)

It's a beautiful blue sky here today and the snow is melting off the roads, while the lawns still look pretty. After a snow, it's very pretty!