Mother, Sisters Rescue Siblings From Sinking Van
By: Caroline Tucker
Updated: July 20, 2012
Three young children are safe tonight after the van they were in rolled into a pond in Ontario County.
It happened around 5:40 Thursday night at a private pond on south hill road in the Town of Bristol.
Police say a two, four and five year old were inside the family van when it rolled down an incline and into the water.
It was just a fun day at the family pond in Bristol.
Sherrie Anderson was recording her teen daughters playing in the water.
And then terror hit.
"It happened so fast I turned to my left and the van felt like it was in full speed," said Sherrie Anderson, mother of 8.
Sherrie dropped the phone, but you can hear the screams from her children.
"Those were my babies, the girls saw them all in the front seat and saw them crying and screaming," said Anderson.
Selah, 2, Justice, 4, and Chase, 5, were trapped in the family van as it plunged into the water.
"My mom yelled and I looked over and by the time I looked over van was halfway in pond halfway on ground :58 and so we jumped in," said Jordyn Anderson, 16.
"Nothing going through my head just needed to get my siblings out if the water," said McKenna Anderson, 14.
Sherrie ran to the van and opened a back door and pulled her three youngest out. The teen girls and Sherrie had to swim to shore with the kids.
The mother of eight is an ordained minister. She said that she feels the Lord held the van up in the water.
Sherrie said the kids were in the car to get out of the rain.
5-year old Chase found the keys, put them in the ignition, and switched gears.
"They know better but these kinds of things do happen, you just don't think it will happen to you," said Anderson.
The van now sits at a Honeoye auto shop.
It's a total loss. The shop owner says he is grateful for a happy ending.
"People do lose their lives in situations like this and it is truly a miracle," said Eric Lang, owner of Bald Hill Automotive.
The Anderson Family feels very blessed.
"You think of what could have happened and we could have been planning a funeral. Just thankful everyone is alive and okay," said Anderson.
Anderson said she has learned a lesson to watch how she parks her vehicle and to keep the keys out of her kids reach.
Lang said that is a good lesson, and he urges that in doubt to put the emergency brake on in a car, especially around kids.
