Five heroic sorority sisters at the University of Georgia saved a mother and her two children from drowning after seeing their car fall off a bridge.
Molly McCollum, Jane McArdle, Eleanor Cart, Clarke Jones and Kaitlyn Lannace were traveling by road from Athens to Savannah on March 15 when they witnessed the accident.
The Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sisters were driving on Murray Hill Road in Burke County when they approached the Brier Creek Bridge and saw Cori Craft, a mother of two, lose control of her vehicle.
“In our peripheral vision, we just see this white spark, a little cloud of dust and something like a big accident,” McCollum said. Good morning america.
“That’s when we decided to stop and that’s when we saw the car in the water,” Jones said.
Molly McCollum, Jane McArdle, Eleanor Cart, Clarke Jones and Kaitlyn Lannace (all pictured) jumped into the water to save a mother and her two children after their car fell off a bridge.
Cori Craft was driving with her two young children when she accidentally ran off the road, fell 135 feet and submerged her car.
Craft had been driving with her two young children when she accidentally went off the road and fell 135 feet, submerging her car, she reported. WRDW.
“I was thinking, ‘I don’t even know where my phone is. I don’t have my glasses. “I don’t know how I’m going to ask for help,” Craft said.
“Then I heard them in the bank and they screamed [asking] if it was good. And I said, “No, my kids are in the car.”
The group of college freshmen called 911 and jumped into cold water to help the family.
McArdle said: “I think the mother was so frantic that, I don’t know, I feel like she had no choice but to help.”
The sisters managed to open one of the car doors and get Craft’s eight-year-old son out of the vehicle, but her four-year-old son was still trapped and buckled in his seat.
‘The clock is ticking. It had been like four to five minutes, it was like every second mattered,” McCollum said.
The group was able to get the four-year-old boy out of the car, but he was unresponsive.
“We all got him out of the vehicle together and then, yes, [he] “I was like completely unconscious and it was terrifying,” McCollum said.
Lannace said: “His lips [were] completely blue, as if his eyes were closed. She wasn’t breathing.
Kappa Alpha Theta sorority sisters pulled Craft’s eight-year-old son from the vehicle, but her four-year-old son was still trapped and buckled in his car seat.
The group pulled the four-year-old boy (right) from the vehicle and a sister, who had worked as a lifeguard, performed CPR on him and saved his life.
Craft credits the women with saving his life and said, “Without them, I wouldn’t have my youngest son here.”
Jones moved the child to the side of the car, began administering CPR and got the child breathing again.
“I was a lifeguard in high school for one summer, so I remembered it from then on,” Jones said.
“We had no idea if he was going to survive. And then I said, ‘This is the only thing I know how to do and I can help.’ So I’ll do my best.”
Craft said, “Without them, I wouldn’t have had my youngest son here because I know I wouldn’t have been able to get to him in time.”
The Burke County Sheriff’s Department named the five women honorary deputies for their bravery.
“They quickly turned around, went to the scene of the accident and, without hesitation, jumped into the water and pulled the driver and two children from the vehicle. The quick thinking and bravery of these women is absolutely admirable,” the sheriff’s office said. sheriff.