Flashing a bright smile to reporters and arranging her shiny blond hair for the cameras, Lisa Klassen did not look like someone who narrowly escaped death just nine days ago.

Arriving at her first meeting with the press since crashing her SUV over a Winnipeg guardrail and into the Red River on Feb. 6, Klassen was smiling, happy and seemingly healthy, despite still recovering from a broken tailbone, vertebra and pelvis.

While some are considering it a lucky comeback after the 15-metre plunge into an icy river, Klassen says she prefers a different word: miraculous.

"I've really experienced the hand of God through the whole experience," Klassen said, surrounded by her mother Helga on one side and her older sister Cindy, an Olympic speed-skating champion, on the other. "I know everything's part of his plan... Obviously it wasn't my time."

Klassen uplifted by support

Klassen says that while she doesn't know how long she'll be in the hospital, she's no longer in much pain and has been touched and uplifted by the support she's received from those working in the hospital, as well as from strangers who have contacted her from around the world.

After pushing her sister's wheelchair into the meeting, Cindy announced she would probably pull out of the rest of this year's speed skating season, which ends in March, to be with her family. She was in Germany when she got the news of her sister's accident and returned to Winnipeg within days.

"Skating is important to me but it's not everything," said Cindy, the first Canadian to win five medals during a single Olympic Games, in Torino 2006. "My family and my faith are the number one things in my life."

Lisa's mother Helga also affirmed the family's Mennonite faith, and said seeing her daughter recover from such a horrific incident has definitely strengthened her belief.

"Going through a difficult time always does that," she noted, adding she was happy to report that the family was already so close that she couldn't say the crash brought them together.

She also said the family was not considering any sort of lawsuit at the moment, a sentiment Lisa seemed to agree with.

"I don't want to place any blame at all," Lisa told reporters when asked if she was angry about the road conditions.

RCMP still investigating

RCMP are currently investigating to see how Klassen's Jeep managed to clear the railing, but one witness thinks snow piled up at the of the bridge may have contributed to the accident.

"I would say it acts as a ramp, a launching pad -- whatever you want to call it," eyewitness Mike Muir told CTV Winnipeg on the day of the accident.

Muir hit the same patch of ice as Klassen and thought he might go over himself. Road crews were out after the accident to scrape down the brige.

Klassen says she's just focused on making a full recovery, adding she's most looking forward to having the tube removed that is draining fluid from one partially collapsed lung.

"It's been quite an adventure for me," she said. "I'm quite excited and pleased with where I'm at... I'm improving each day and I'm grateful for the support I've had. It's been phenomenal."

With a story from CTV's Rachel Lagace