Families thank men who saved kids from submerged car

LOGAN — The sound of rushing water was all Roger Andersen could hear after his car plunged into the Logan River on Saturday. It overwhelmed even the cries of his daughter, son and young family friend who were in the car with him.

"Within one second the entire cabin of the vehicle was full of water," Andersen said. "I didn't hear any screams of the kids. … As (Mia) cried for help, the water would rush into her lungs."

Andersen and daughter Mia, 9, son Baylor, 4, and family friend Kenya Wildman, 9, were en route from Logan to Beaver Mountain for a half day of skiing the bunny slopes around 12:30 p.m. It's a trip through Logan Canyon Andersen has made hundreds of times, so he knows where the treacherous turns are.

He was coming around one such curve on his snowy trip on U.S. 89 when he saw a minivan wrecked on a bridge, partially overhanging the water. Even though he was already driving a cautious 20 to 25 mph, he thought it best to slow down.

"I tapped the brakes once and that one tap was really all it took," he said. "I was gone in a second."

As his sedan slid down the 10-foot embankment, he hoped the rocks in front of him would bring it to a stop. When those passed under the car, he hoped the water’s edge might. Instead, the vehicle overtuned upon impact, trapping him and the three children inside.

"It was really a very slow kind of drawn out thing in my mind,” he said, despite it only taking a few seconds.

But as quickly as the accident happened, selfless passersby were in the water coming to their rescue.

"In no less than 10 seconds, there were half a dozen men standing on the banks of the river," he said. "Within five (more) seconds there were eight men in the river."

It took about 90 seconds for Andersen — who was able to free himself — and the bystanders to right the car and pull the kids from it. Mia and Baylor weren’t breathing, but people at the scene with CPR training stepped in to help. Within seconds, all three children were breathing on their own.

Andersen and his wife, Mindy, spoke at a press conference Monday at Logan Regional Hospital along with Kenya's parents and a few of the rescuers. The families expressed gratitude for the men who stepped in to keep their families intact.