A US toddler is in a critical but stable condition after she was trapped upside-down for more than 14 hours in a car that plunged into a frigid river, police say.
Lynn Jennifer Groesbeck, the mother of 18-month-old Lily Groesbeck, was killed, police said.
The car plunged into the Spanish Fork River as Ms Groesbeck, 25, was driving from Salem to her home in Springville, a suburb of Provo, Utah, on Friday night.
Ms Groesbeck's family said she left Salem about 10pm to drive home.
Spanish Fork Police Lieutenant Matt Johnson said a resident near the river thought he heard something on Friday night and checked the area but did not see anything.
Based on that, the accident probably occurred between 10 and 10.30pm, he said.
The car was found by a fisherman shortly after noon on Saturday. It was resting face-down in the water.
The temperature dropped close to freezing overnight while Lily was trapped.
When authorities arrived, they found the girl hanging upside-down in her car seat above the water, which was flowing through the car, Lieutenant Johnson said.
Her mother was in the driver's seat.
Authorities think the child survived the icy temperature because the rear part of the vehicle was far enough out of the water for her to remain dry.
"It's miraculous that the child was able to survive," Lieutenant Johnson said.
The water was so cold that three police officers and four firefighters who entered the river were treated for hypothermia, KSTU Fox 13 Salt Lake City reported.
A family spokeswoman told the station that doctors said the child was doing well, considering what she had endured.
After checking the road for signs of evasive manoeuvres, investigators are still trying to find out what caused the vehicle to strike a concrete barrier before plunging off the road and into the river below.
Lieutenant Johnson said the weather was clear at the time of the accident.
"I've never seen anything like it," he told The Washington Post. "It's a tragedy because of the death of the mother, but we're very happy that the little girl survived."
Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for funeral and medical costs.
Last month, a baby and toddler survived nine hours trapped in the wreckage of a car, in a crash that killed their mother in southern NSW.
Jacqui Britton, 33, from Tathra, was found dead in the driver's seat, while her daughters, two-year-old Matilda and three-month-old Charlotte, were trapped in the back seat after their car ran off Tathra Road, on the southern outskirts of Bega, and landed on its roof.
The wreckage was found deep in a bushy embankment by family friends.
Source: theage
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