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Quick thinker: Girl, 6, hailed for saving mother after car accident
Posted by: Timothy Tibbetts on: 12/20/2009 07:31 AM in [ Print ]
Hannah Hubbell doesn't like to brag, but without her level-headed response following a car accident Sunday, her mother might not be alive today.
Despite being scared, Hannah kept her cool, got help and saw to it that her mother's life-threatening injuries were promptly treated.
Not bad for a 6-year-old.
The ordeal started Sunday afternoon when Hannah's mother, Holly Hubbell, left their Odessa home to drive Hannah's friend back to her family. The friend lives in Sayre and the plan was to meet halfway in Van Etten.
Hannah and her friend, Summer Eldridge, 6, were in car booster seats in the back seat as Holly Hubbell drove south on state Route 224 in Cayuta in Schuyler County.
But the road turned unexpectedly icy, and before she could react, Holly lost control of the car, which slid over an embankment.
What happened next was a surprise even to veteran law enforcement officials.
"They slid off the roadway and over an embankment, and struck a tree with the driver side of the vehicle. That pinned her mother in the vehicle," said Schuyler County Sheriff William Yessman, whose son, Andrew Yessman, was the first deputy on the scene.
"Hannah was able to climb out through a broken rear window. You couldn't see the vehicle from the road," William Yessman said. "She went up to the road and flagged down cars. Someone stopped in a pickup truck. They ran to a house to call 911.
"Hannah went back to the car and helped her friend get out. They both went back and flagged down more cars," he said.
"It's just amazing that a 6-year-old would have the mindset to do that and not want to stay with mom, who was pinned in the car," the sheriff said.
The sheriff made a special visit Thursday to B.C. Cate Elementary School in Montour Falls, where Hannah is a first-grader, to present her with a certificate in recognition of her heroic actions.
Holly Hubbell suffered 10 broken ribs, a punctured lung and a ruptured spleen, according to her husband, Robert. She was taken to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, where she spent several days in the intensive care unit before being transferred to a private room Wednesday.
Quick thinker: Girl, 6, hailed for saving mother after car accident
Despite being scared, Hannah kept her cool, got help and saw to it that her mother's life-threatening injuries were promptly treated.
Not bad for a 6-year-old.
Hannah and her friend, Summer Eldridge, 6, were in car booster seats in the back seat as Holly Hubbell drove south on state Route 224 in Cayuta in Schuyler County.
But the road turned unexpectedly icy, and before she could react, Holly lost control of the car, which slid over an embankment.
What happened next was a surprise even to veteran law enforcement officials.
"They slid off the roadway and over an embankment, and struck a tree with the driver side of the vehicle. That pinned her mother in the vehicle," said Schuyler County Sheriff William Yessman, whose son, Andrew Yessman, was the first deputy on the scene.
"Hannah went back to the car and helped her friend get out. They both went back and flagged down more cars," he said.
"It's just amazing that a 6-year-old would have the mindset to do that and not want to stay with mom, who was pinned in the car," the sheriff said.
The sheriff made a special visit Thursday to B.C. Cate Elementary School in Montour Falls, where Hannah is a first-grader, to present her with a certificate in recognition of her heroic actions.
Holly Hubbell suffered 10 broken ribs, a punctured lung and a ruptured spleen, according to her husband, Robert. She was taken to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, where she spent several days in the intensive care unit before being transferred to a private room Wednesday.
Quick thinker: Girl, 6, hailed for saving mother after car accident