LOCAL NEWS

Mother Credits Strangers For Helping Save Family After Van Crashes Into River

Jun 3, 2020, 8:35 PM | Updated: Jun 4, 2020, 8:36 am

LOGAN, Utah – Bystanders and rescue crews saved a mother and her children from a minivan that was caught up in the swift waters of the Logan River.

The children and mother are all alive because so many things went right last week, and so many strangers rushed to help.

Raechel Clark said it turned a frightening experience into a positive one.

“We were moving backward and the car was filling up with water,” she said. “My kids were extremely terrified at that point.”

Raechel Clark and her family were pulled from their minivan, which crashed into the Logan River last week.

Clark said she landed the family van in the river while trying to pick up a water bottle and she was just as scared as her children.

“You’re powerless,” Clark said. “There’s just, there’s nothing you can do.”

However, she found comfort moments later.

“I can see people on the road, running to help,” she said. “Just chasing after the car floating down the river. They just dove right in. These people that don’t know me, they don’t know my family. They just jumped like we were one of their family.”

Kayaker Marc Nelson, along with his friend Levi Wiscombe, were two of the strangers who ran to the rescue.

“I think the mom did a really good job at keeping things calm,” Nelson said.

It was ultimately their pulley system that rescuers used to lift the family out of the van.

“We took a rope across the river basically. But it was like everybody else that was standing there. Everyone was grabbing ropes,” Nelson said. “Everyone was pulling. Everyone was hoisting and just helping out as much as they possibly could.”

Everyone worked together and it gave Clark confidence that the rescue would work out.

“Just seeing what everybody did for us. It was amazing,” Clark said.

Clark added a lot of other people made a difference, including an amateur radio operator who called for help.

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Mother Credits Strangers For Helping Save Family After Van Crashes Into River