Sisters of a women’s community in Georgia rescue a family from a car submerged in a creek

News from the USA

from Isabel Keane

Five sisters from the University of Georgia sorority heroically rescued a mother and her two young sons after their car went off a bridge and into a creek, rushing into the frigid water to save the boys.

Freshman students Molly McCollum, Jane McArdle, Eleanor Cart, Clark Jones and Caitlin Yanas were leaving campus to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah on March 15 when they saw Corey Craft’s SUV lose control and fall into the creek.

“In our peripheral vision, we’re just seeing this … white spark, a little cloud of dust and kind of a big old crash,” McCollum told “Good Morning America” ​​on Wednesday. “And I’m like, ‘Am I imagining this?’ And Clark said, ‘Yeah, yeah, let’s go check that out.’

Kraft was driving through Sardis, Georgia with her two sons in the back seat when she lost control of the wheel and her car quickly plunged into the river.

The girls, who had taken a detour after stopping for lunch, rushed over and started yelling at Kraft to see if he was okay.

“I was thinking, I’m like, ‘I don’t even know where my phone is. I don’t have my glasses. I don’t know how I’m going to call for help,” Kraft said. “And then I just heard them on shore and they called out [asking] if i was ok And I’m like, ‘No, my kids are in the car.’

Seeing the distraught mother, the girls sprung into action, immediately calling 911 and rushing into the water to pull their sons from the sinking vehicle.

They were able to quickly extricate Kraft’s older son, but her 4-year-old son was trapped, strapped into his seat underwater, for between four and five minutes.

“Time was running out. Four or five minutes had passed and we all just pulled him out of the vehicle together. He was completely unconscious, it was terrifying,” McCollum recalled.

Iannace described the younger boy’s lips as “completely blue” and said he was not breathing.

The 911 audio shared with GMA reveals that Carth was still on the phone with dispatchers when the CPR that Jones performed on the child got him breathing again.

“I was a lifeguard in high school for one summer, so I just remembered it from then,” Jones said. “We had no idea if he was going to survive at all. And so I say to myself, “This is the only thing I know how to do and that I can help. So, I’m just going to give it my best shot.”

All six women wept as the little boy began to breathe again.

“Without them stopping, I wouldn’t have my youngest here because I know I wouldn’t have been able to get to him in time,” Craft said.

The five students were recognized by the Sardis Police Department and the Burke County Sheriff’s Department and surprised with badges of honor in recognition of their heroism.

Kraft and her sons were taken to hospital after the accident – the only injury was a seat belt burn sustained by her youngest son.

The sorority sisters described him as “in the right place at the right time.”

“Every second counted in this situation,” Jones said. “I mean if we were five seconds later we wouldn’t even have seen the car go off the bridge and it was so wooded we wouldn’t have even thought to look over there.”

McCollum added: “Also… it just made me rethink, like, day by day, it’s more about [having] mentality of altruism and just like searching for [anyone] who needs help in the world around you.