14 DAY TRIAL // Two sisters from Oregon have miraculously escaped a car crash that has killed their mother, and have been rescued from a remote location by passing fishermen.
26-year-old Jessica Rath from Astoria crashed her car into a tree, as she was driving to the port her fisherman husband worked in. According to KAIT 8, she veered off SR-401 near Naselle, Washington around midnight.
She had her daughters, aged 4 and 2 with her in the car at the time of the accident. Rath died on the spot, leaving the girls to fare for themselves in the woods.
Almost 8 hours later, two fishermen driving by noticed the gash in the tree in the remote location, returning to check it out.
They noticed that the oldest, Arianna, had pulled her younger sister out of the car and used a blanket to help both of them stay warm.
"They were just staring at me. [...] I said, 'babies are you okay?' And the oldest one started crying, and said, 'We're cold,'" Scott Beautler describes.
They had spent the night in the woods while 2-year-old Lylah was severely injured, being found at approximately 8 a.m., reports the NY Daily News.
According to Bert Haven, with the Naselle Volunteer Fire Department, she "was sick and needed to be out of there right away."
"The 4-year-old was telling us the story, she had said that she actually got the 2-year-old out of the car. […] So, as far as we know, the 4-year-old got the 2-year-old out of the car and had a blanket that she covered them both," Haven details.
First responders have commended the fishermen on their keen eye for detail, which might have saved the girls' lives.
"'Well done' is all you can say to the person who took the time to find these baby girls at this crash. [...] Most people would not have been so observant," Trooper Russ Winger is quoted by King 5 saying.