Family Safe, Grateful After Dramatic Water Rescue In Ottawa County

BY SHEILA STOGSDILL, For The OklahomanAFTON — A Grove mother credits divine intervention for the electronic window in her sport utility vehicle “to suddenly move” as she frantically tried to free her 1-year-old child from his car seat that was submerged underwater while cold water filled the vehicle. Britta Franck, 25, her grandmother, June Nolan, 72, of Wichita, Kan., and Franck's three sons, Miguel, 6, Arturo, 3 and Devin, 1, were rescued Friday after their vehicle was caught in a fierce current and flipped over on its side in Little Horse Creek, which is two miles east and one mile north of Afton. “We were leaving Grove and headed to the turnpike to go back to Wichita,” Franck said. The bridge northeast of Grove is under construction and Franck's GPS redirected her to a rural road, she said. “We were on a low-water bridge when suddenly we were swept off the bridge and into the creek,” Franck said. “We went down the creek about the distance of a football field and then we hit a tree and that is when [the SUV] flipped onto its side,” Franck said. “I turned around and looked and the baby was underwater in his car seat,” Franck said. As Franck struggled to release the car seat lock, the lock opened when the vehicle flipped. A tree broke out the front passenger car window, but for an unknown reason the back passenger window began to roll down on its own, Franck said. “There were power locks on that window and I knew I wouldn't be able to unlock it,” Franck said. The mother held her youngest close to her and was able to put the other two children on the side of the overturned vehicle while water swirled around the car. While Franck fought to save her children, she was also fighting to keep Nolan alive who was waist deep in water. “We were in the water for about 45 minutes before we were rescued,” Franck said. Because of the high water, Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Micah Stinnett was unable to reach the vehicle, but a passing pickup was able to give him a ride to get closer to the sinking vehicle, the patrol reported. Franck's vehicle was pinned against a tree, was almost completely submerged, and was between 10 to 15 feet from the creek bank. Stinnett found the oldest child clinging to a tree.Read more on NewsOK.com