Baby in Critical Condition After Tragic Car Wreck in Utah River

By Jillian MacMath, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

March 9,2015; 9:00PM,EDT

 

 

An 18-month-old baby is in critical condition at a Utah hospital after surviving a car wreck Friday night and weathering frigid conditions for as many as 14 hours in Utah's Spanish Fork River.
The wreck was discovered after a fisherman waded into the river around noon on Saturday, spotting the vehicle overturned in the water.
According to police, the car was not visible from the road.
The driver, a 25-year-old from Springville, Utah, and mother of the child, was killed after the car veered off the road, striking the cement barrier on the south end of the bridge and plummeting into the river, according to Spanish Fork Public Safety.
The child, strapped into a car seat in the rear passenger seat of the vehicle, was found unconscious and unresponsive but alive, despite being trapped upside down for as many as 14 hours.
"The vehicle was on its top, so the car seat could have been out of the water," Lt. Cory Slaymaker of the Spanish Forks Police Department told ABC News.
"The car was on the embankment, so I don't know how much water was getting into the car."
Overnight Friday, temperatures fell close to freezing and lasted there between four and six hours, AccuWeather.com Expert Meteorologist Tom Kines said.
The river level was very low, at only 3.5 feet, around the time of the accident. Flood stage for the Spanish Fork River is closer to 9 feet.
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Fed mostly by mountain snow, the river could have quickly caused hypothermia if the baby had been submerged, according to Kines.
"The fact that the water level was low could have been what saved the baby's life," he said.
Four of seven rescue personnel were treated for hypothermia, despite air temperatures rebounding to the 50s F on Saturday.
The family of the mother and child has set up a GoFundMe page, requesting donations for medical expenses and funeral costs. In fewer than 24 hours, the family has raised close to $18,000.