Baby survives 14 hours above frigid river after mother killed in car crash

• The 18-month-old child spent hours upside down in a rear passenger car seat as temperatures in the area dropped below freezing overnight.

Officials move a car that fell into Spanish Fork River near the Main Street and the Arrowhead Trail Road junction in Spanish Fork, Utah. -AFP

Washington— A baby in the US state of Utah survived a car crash that killed her mother by dangling upside down in her car seat above a river’s frigid waters for 14 hours, police said.

A fisherman found the 18-month-old child and woman on Saturday in a four-door car flipped over in the Spanish Fork River in Utah, according to a police report.

The daughter apparently spent hours upside down in a rear passenger car seat as temperatures in the area dropped below freezing overnight.

The man called a rescue crew that was able to navigate the cold river and flip the car to get the little girl to emergency care.

Seven rescuers had to be transferred to a hospital to be treated for hypothermia and were later released.
Images posted on Twitter showed the partially submerged vehicle being hoisted by rescue crews.

Spanish Fork police identified the mother as Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, 25, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Groesbeck’s family said she was driving to her home on Friday night at the time of the crash.

Police believe she struck the side of the bridge before plunging into the river.

The toddler is now stable but in critical condition at the hospital, the newspaper said.

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