SPANISH FORK, Utah — Police have released body-camera footage that shows the frantic rescue of an 18-month-old Utah girl from a car that had crashed into a frigid river 14 hours earlier.
The dramatic video from emergency responders’ cameras, released Friday, shows them discovering Lynn Groesbeck, 25, of Springville dead in the front seat, then finding her daughter, Lily Groesbeck, in the back seat.
“There’s a baby!” a responder is heard saying as he directs crews to rescue her. “We’re helping, we’re coming,” a rescuer says at another point. A firefighter then pulls out what appears to be a lifeless girl, who had been strapped in a car seat upside down for 14 hours.
“Definitely hypothermic. She’s freezing,” a rescuer says as the girl is carried to an embankment and undergoes efforts to revive her. At that point, rescuers are unable to feel a pulse. “Come on, sweetie. Come on, sweetie,” a responder says.
The girl arrives by ambulance at a hospital some six minutes after she was lifted from the car and shows signs of life by vomiting and regaining her breath.
A fisherman spotted the car March 7, the day after it hit a cement barrier on a bridge and careened into the river in Spanish Fork, about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City. Police said that even though the road over the bridge gets plenty of traffic, no one saw the wreck because the cement barrier obstructed the view.
The girl, who was initially listed in critical condition, was released from the hospital Wednesday.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. But police have said the child’s mother could have been distracted or drowsy.