Five Children Pulled From Car In Icy Minnesota Pond

Five children were rescued from a car after it had veered off a rain-slicked highway ramp in suburban Minneapolis early Thursday. According to the Huffington Post, the car veered off the ramp landing in a nearby holding pond, trapping five children underwater for up to 45 minutes until a tow truck pulled it out.

ABC News reported that the children’s ages ranged from one to seven. Lieutenant Eric Roeske, a spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol, told reporters that the kids “spent significant time in water. The water is about nine feet deep. It’s incredibly cold. Not freezing, but close.”

According to Duluth News Tribune, the city fire department and the Hennepin County sheriff’s dive team responded and used tow trucks to pull the sedan out of the water. Roeske told reporters that “once the vehicle was removed from the water, we found that there were five other occupants, all children.”

The Huffington Post stated that the driver of the car, a 23-year-old woman, did manage to pull herself out of the sinking car. She is reportedly in stable condition. The conditions of the children have not been released, but initial reports did say that they were unresponsive as they were being pulled from the car. Roeske said in a statement that all five children were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center.

The relationship of the woman to the children is currently unknown, and according to the Huffington Post, Roeske told reporters that the names of the children will not be released until families have been notified.

The Huffington Post stated that the car accident was initially reported at 6:10am Thursday morning, and according to Roeske, the first of the five children was pulled out after being trapped in the car for 25 minutes. The last child to be pulled for the car was removed after being trapped for 45 minutes. Police are currently investigating the crash, and the woman who was driving the car at the time.

[photo credit: Matthew Rice. via photopin cc]