Toddlers, 3 and 1, found in wreckage four days after family car crashes into deep ravine killing mother
A three-year-old and his one-year-old brother were miraculously found alive near the wreckage of a car crash at the bottom of a deep ravine four days after the accident. Their mother died in the accident and the toddlers remained in the ravine hungry and 'desperate for human contact'. The three-year-old eventually managed to climb out of the ravine and was found wandering on the highway near the crash site before the two were finally rescued by the authorities.
Officials in Arkansas were stunned when the found that the children survived the accident and had gone so long without any food. They told reporters on August 21 that the accident, which was thought to have taken place on August 18, may have actually taken place on August 16. Implying that the boys were by themselves in the mangled wreckage of the family car for almost four days before they were found.
Detective Nathan Greeley from the Ouachita County Sheriff's Office was one of the first people to meet the older child after he was discovered in the wreck. He said that the toddler had a few cuts and scrapes but was desperate for human contact. He told ABC News: "He just wanted to hug me and didn't want to let go." The authorities described the incident as a "miracle".
Greeley said, "They went through pure hell. It is completely amazing that, not only did they survive that long, but that the three-year-old was able to walk out the way that he did."
The toddler had been found wandering on the highway next to the crash site in Camden on August 20. Members of the local sheriff's department went to the area to look around and that was when they found the wreck at the bottom of a deep ravine.
The mother had been thrown out of the driver's seat when the car impacted the guardrail but the infants had still been in the back seat. No food or water was found around the crash site, according to what the officials said.
The Arkansas State Police were able to identify the mother as 25-year-old Lisa N Holliman, a resident in Camden. It has been reported that she lost control of the car when she hit a guardrail while driving and the car overturned into the ditch.
Greeley also said that his department had estimated that the car had been in the ravine for at least two or three days and that the crash had not been seen from the road because of where the car settled. He said that the toddler had essentially saved his and his brother's lives when he walked on to the highway.
He said: "Had not he done what he did, his brother probably wouldn't be here right now." Both the brothers were immediately taken to a hospital nearby where the infant had been treated for dehydration.