DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - Members of a Doral family shared their account of the remarkable rescue made by first responders and good Samaritans who joined forces to pull them from their overturned SUV after they crashed into a canal.
Cellphone video recorded by witnesses captured the tense moments that unfolded near Southwest 119th Avenue and 268th Street in Southwest Miami-Dade, Saturday night.
Speaking with 7News on Monday, the father of the family said they were all so disoriented after their SUV flipped over that they didn’t initially know that they were upside down in the shallow water.
He said the situation was so frantic and chaotic that he heard his children, ages 6 and 8, praying.
The family said they were at a loved one’s home and had left. When they realized that they had forgotten something, they decided to turn around.
The father, who was behind the wheel of the SUV, made a U-turn at around 8 p.m.
The family said the road was dark and it was hard to see, and that is when the car flipped into the canal.
Inside the SUV were the two children, their father and their aunt.
Eight-year-old Mia Fernandez said she doesn’t remember much, but she said she was scared.
“I was thinking there was alligators, because in the water there could be alligators, and I was scared about that,” she said.
The family said they’re extremely thankful for the strangers that jumped in to help rescue them. They also hope more lights will be installed along the stretch of road where the crash took place.
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