Posted on 03/05/2014 9:35:15 AM PST by servo1969
[video]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Three children -- ages 5, 7 and 10 -- were rescued from a minivan that was driven into the Atlantic Ocean off Daytona Beach.
Onlookers pulled the children from the vehicle, which was being buffeted by waves as it drifted deeper into the surf Tuesday. A woman driving the van escaped unharmed.
Beach Safety Capt. Tammy Marris said the woman was already driving on the beach, where cars are allowed, when the vehicle entered the water.
The South Carolina family of four was taken to Halifax Hospital. Once the children are released, they will be placed in the care of relatives while an investigation is conducted.
A tourist from Montreal, Simon Besner, captured the terrifying ordeal on video, and Taylor Quintin, visiting Central Florida from Vermont, saw the whole thing from the balcony of her hotel room.
“My friend pointed out that there was a car getting really close to the beach and actually started driving on the water,” Quintin told Local 6. “I saw a kid in the back waiving his arms around screaming, 'Help us! Help us!' And the car kept going deeper.”
Quintin said three bystanders quickly jumped into action.
“That's when I saw a guy from the beach run over next to the car and take out two small children and walk them back up,” Quintin said.
At one point in the video, the mother in the driver's seat hops out through a window and walks toward the shore. Bystanders and a lifeguard continued to search the back of the van while waves came over the car.
“Another guy ran out and brought a little toddler out of the car,” said Quintin.
The man carried the child back to shore, saving the child's life.
Volusia County Beach Patrol and the Florida Department of Children and Families are investigating the circumstances, but people who saw the incident, including Donna Pratt, can't believe it was accidental.
“When she first was drifting into the ocean, we thought maybe an accident,” Pratt told Local 6. “But when the bystanders went to help, she clearly went deeper into the ocean. She drove right toward it, so it's hard to believe it was an accident.”
A DCF official told Local 6 the agency is looking into any past cases of child neglect or abuse.
No other details were immediately released.
So they finally get from the Carolina cold to a sunny Florida beach, and the kids are screaming, “We wanna go in the water! We wanna go in the water!”
I am sorry to hear about your mother’s situation. Ten years ago, almost to the day, a woman on a cell phone ran a red light and t-boned me. I can still clearly see the woman coming toward me in her van, cell phone pressed to her ear, not a care in the world, to a look of horrified shock on her face as she hits me. I was blessed to be able to fully recover from my injuries. I know that day must be far worse for your mom.
Thanks to you both for your kind wishes. At least Mom is still alive and her mind is intact. Other victims of cell-phone impaired drivers haven’t been so fortunate.
South Carolina Ping
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Sounds like a Susan Smith wannabe. Damn.
Susan Smith
I lived in the Columbia area when the trial took place and it is not that far from Union, South Carolina.
The “nut” drove her car into a lake in South Carolina and then left the children to die. That received national attention as she tried to say the children were kidnapped but then went to trial after the submerged vehicle was found. She is in jail for life. This is an excellent write up which explains Susan Smith’s motivation to kill her children.
I would bet both were on an antidepressant drug (personal theory).
http://crime.about.com/od/murder/a/susan_smith.htm
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