An Idaho woman was ejected through a car window and left hanging from a power line by a broken bone, but her new photos show what came next

Kennedy Bingham is sharing new images five years after a car accident that left her suspended 30 feet in the air from a power line. The Idaho woman lost her leg and sustained permanent damage to her arm in the 2021 crash, and as first highlighted by LADbible, she has since turned that experience into a platform for others. The new photos show a woman who has not only rebuilt her life but is actively pushing its limits.

The accident occurred two days after a breakup, when Kennedy’s friends encouraged her to join a hike at a nearby mountain. On the way home, she lost control of the vehicle, which flipped and rolled. Because none of the three occupants were wearing seatbelts, all three were ejected.

Kennedy previously described what she found when she regained awareness. She was not on the ground but suspended in the power line by her broken leg. Her arm had been torn off and was hanging on by the skin of her back, and her femur had snapped over the wire. She remained in the air for nearly an hour before emergency crews could bring her down.

Her recovery required 21 surgeries and forced her to adapt to an entirely new way of life

Doctors performed 21 surgeries to address her injuries. Beyond the fractured femur and near-amputation of her arm, Kennedy suffered significant electrical trauma and was eventually diagnosed with a severe brachial plexus injury, which occurs when nerves are ripped from the spine. The diagnosis left her arm permanently paralyzed, and despite multiple attempts to save her leg, it was ultimately amputated.

Her two friends recovered from the accident, but Kennedy’s path was significantly more difficult. She has since become a motivational speaker and shares her story online, amid a broader wave of personal ordeals gaining public attention, including an Illinois nurse’s murder that was exposed through a seven-hour audio recording. Kennedy has not simply moved on from her trauma but has actively sought out new physical challenges.

Most recently, she completed a HYROX fitness race wearing her running blade. HYROX is an indoor endurance competition that combines 8 kilometers of running with eight functional workout stations, including sled pushes, rowing, and wall balls. The format is standardized globally, allowing participants to compare results on a worldwide leaderboard. The event has grown rapidly in recent years and is often described as one of the most demanding fitness competitions available to everyday athletes, a profile not unlike an Ironman competitor’s death in Texas that drew attention to the physical risks of high-stakes endurance racing.

Kennedy spent six months training for the event. “I knew it was really scary, and I knew it was gonna push myself more than anything I probably could’ve chose,” she told PEOPLE. “But I knew I could do it.”

She competed in a November relay race alongside her husband before taking on her solo run, and she was candid about the difficulty of the preparation. “The training was honestly the worst part,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m so tired of going to train, running and sled, the same thing every day.'” She also described a recurring technical challenge with her prosthetic during high-intensity exercise: sweat caused the device to slip off repeatedly during training runs, adding frustration to an already demanding process.

Kennedy has said she would go through the entire experience again for the sense of purpose it gave her and for the chance to make a difference in someone else’s life. She is already planning her next race.