Girl, 10, saves mother and baby sister after family car plunges into ravine

A girl of ten has been praised for saving her mother and baby sister after their car plunged down an icy ravine.

Annabelle McLeod helped her family escape from the wreckage with just minor bruises after the family car skidded off an icy road.

Her mother Samantha Rogers lost control of the vehicle which careered 30ft down a ditch, smashing through trees and landing on its roof.

She and her daughters were left hanging upside down in the wreck, while traffic passed on the road above them in Missouri in the USA.

Mrs Rogers, 35, became trapped by her seat-belt and was unable to help Annabelle and two-month-old Alicia, who was hanging upside down in her car seat.

She said: "I was frightened the baby had been crushed initially, as I couldn't see her, and was so disorientated by the roll."

Eventually Annabelle broke free and managed to reach the stricken baby and hold her head up.

She then tried to call police on her mother's mobile phone, but when she realised there was no reception clambered up the embankment and flagged down a car.

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Yesterday Mrs Rogers, who moved to the US last year from Bishop's Cleeve in Gloucestershire, said: 'She helped pull the baby and her car seat up out of the ditch and she helped me up too.

"She was so brilliant throughout the entire incident. "She didn't panic, didn't scream, just kept calm and tried to give police directions to where we were."

"I was so proud of her for being so sensible and not caring about herself before us."

Samantha had been to hospital with the children and was on her way home when disaster struck.

She said: "I was just five miles from home. We were on the back roads, which are windy."

"They are very dangerous at the best of times, they are all up and down and both sides have huge drops, some as deep as 30 ft."

"We had the first sprinkling of snow and it just looked like slush. I was only driving at 35mph."

"I hit some ice and just lost control. The car skidded. I knew it was going to go in the ditch."

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"I was terrified as we were falling that one of the tree branches would come through the window and crush the children."

Mrs Rogers, a former ambulance driver who moved to Missouri last year with her husband Robert, who is in the US Airforce, eventually managed to free herself and the whole family escaped from the terrifying incident with just a few bruises.

She said: "I worked out I had to lift my weight up. I then released the belt and fell to the ground."

Sgt Scott Meyer, Missouri State Patrol, said: "This could have been a bad crash, but the fact they were wearing seat-belts and one child was in a car seat, made the difference in nobody getting killed."