Child alone in car escapes after it rolls into canal

LAUDERHILL, Fla. (WSVN) -- An 11-year-old girl left alone with a car was able to get out of the vehicle after it rolled into a canal.

The incident happened at 4141 NW 16th St., outside the Kings Row Apartments in Lauderhill, not long after 3 p.m., Thursday.

The car was partially submerged in a canal behind the apartment complex. Lauderhill Fire Rescue responded to the accident, but the girl had made it out of the car uninjured thanks to some Good Samaritans.

According to the child's mother, Nikki Richards, she gave her daughter the key-less entry to the car while she was busy cooking dinner. She gave it to her to run a specific errand. "She said, 'Oh, Mommy, I forgot my phone in the car.'"

So the mother gave her the remote to open the door, but instead, the Nissan Altima with a "push-to-start" ignition somehow ended up in the water. "I could have come out, she would have been drowned," said the mother, "something could have happened to her. How do you think I feel if something would have happened to her?"

After it rolled into the water, golfers on the other side of the canal heard a big splash and ran over. Andrew Lindo would pull the girl out of water. "The window of the drover's side was open," he said, "and I told her to stand on that ledge of that window, and I got as close as I could, and I told her to dive, and I would catch her."

Paula Tucker called 911, concerned there maybe someone else inside. "When I saw the ponytail coming out of the water, I was more concerned whether there was more kids inside the car because the car was starting to sink."

A tow truck responded to the scene to get the car out.

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