‘I didn’t think we would make it out of there’: Woman saves herself and 3-year-old from drowning in car

EVANS COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - It was a very mundane afternoon on August 6th, although Mary Ellen Thrift was excited to spend some time with 3-year-old Kinslee Kay, who was the granddaughter of her friend.

Thrift offered to pick up Kinslee and take her back to her house in Tattnall county.

While making the nearly 45-minute drive from Statesboro, Mary Kay turned down Kennedy Bridge Road, a road she had taken hundreds of times before.

Sadly, Thrift learned that day that in one second it can go from a mundane adventure to a fight for her, and Kinslee’s life.

“We were driving, I looked up and Kinslee through the mirror, she was just sitting smiling, looking back at me.”

Thrift, “I looked back down, and I was drifting off the road a bit. I over corrected and went across the highway.”

Unbeknown to Mary Ellen, a small creek called Dry River Creek was what was waiting on the other side of the road.

“We were heading down the hill, or across, but the next thing I saw was water, and I was just begging to God, please God, no no no, help help and the next thing was when I hit the embankment on the other side of the water.” said Thrift.

Without knowing, where, or how much water they had landed in the sense of panic, they set it.

“I was crying, Kinslee was saying, “get me Mimi” and I was acting like a scared person… Because I was.” she said. “I just prayed to not let us die in that car.”

Mary Ellen says she started to look for a phone to call for help, but in that part of Evans County service is spotty.

Her next plan was to break the windshield, and she did some damage but not enough to break out.

She says that while this was all happening, the horn was blaring and headlight was flashing, but yet every car she heard come close just keep driving.

“The horn was blowing. But cars were riding by, nobody knew I was down there.” said Thrift.

In a last ditch effort Mary Ellen cut through her deployed air bag and found the passenger side door, she wasn’t sure how much pressure would stand between her and safety.

“I pulled the door handle, and it opened, just as easily as if we were in a parking lot somewhere, the door opened and all I could do was praise God. I didn’t think we were going to get out of there,” she said.

After escaping the car and crawling up the embankment Mary Ellen and Kinslee were able to flag down help, only to find out that Emergency Personnel had been looking for them.

Mary Ellen’s Apple Watch had notified help after it detected the crash, and the EMA was one of those cars passing by Thrift had heard earlier.

Both Mary Ellen and Kinslee slept safely at home with their families but Mary Ellen is now painfully aware of just how precious life is.