Good Samaritan breaks window to free 3-year-old girl from car sinking in pond

ST. PETERS, Mo. (KMOV/Gray News) - A Missouri mother is extremely grateful to a good Samaritan who rescued her 3-year-old daughter after the family’s SUV rolled into a pond.

Austin Collins was dropping his kids off at a school bus stop Thursday morning in St. Peters when he saw an SUV roll from a parking lot, down a hill and into a pond. A 3-year-old girl named Melody was inside at the time.

“I just saw a big ol’ splash, and immediately, everyone just ran over and took action,” Collins said.

He called 911 then jumped into the pond to help the toddler.

“I was honestly holding onto the vehicle to stay afloat,” Collins said. “I didn’t know how deep it was at the time.”

Collins said someone handed him a hammer, and he used it to break a window to free Melody. He cut his hand on the broken glass in the process.

“I knew that as soon as I grabbed the little girl, she would potentially get cut,” he said. “So, I ended up just taking my hand and clearing as much glass as I could before I grabbed her.”

Mom thankful her little girl is still alive

Melody’s mother, Megan Kohlhaas, was helping her other kids get on the bus when the incident happened.

“So, I’m just waving bye to them, making sure he gets on the bus, and next thing, I know, the kids are all screaming, ‘The car! The car!’ And it just rolls backwards,” Kohlhaas said.

She said the quick response from others helped save her daughter’s life.

“Even just finding the hammer and how fast someone was able to pass it on to someone in the water and break in and that we had that time is just a miracle,” she said.

Kohlhaas said she is thankful Melody is still alive.

“I’m just thankful she’s alive, and I can’t stop thinking about the man and all the people that helped,” Kohlhaas said. “Without him, we would’ve lost her.”

Collins credited Kohlhaas for how the group responded.

“Kudos to the mom. She definitely created that urgency early on so that we all could pull together,” he said. “It really outlines what we can do as a community when somebody is in need: we just all pull together.”

Melody is doing just fine after the incident. A GoFundMe has been created to help Kohlhaas replace her car.

Information from investigators on why the SUV was able to roll away is pending.