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BOX ELDER COUNTY -- A Honeyville teenager is being hailed as a hero for pulling a drowning child out of a car that had crashed and rolled into a ditch near Willard.
Todd Kanno, 19, says he saw a puff of dust and a tire fly into the air as he was driving southbound on Interstate 15 Tuesday afternoon. A woman and her three children were inside the car.
By the time Kanno turned around and got to the crash, he says other people had stopped. The driver and two of her children were out of the car, but the woman's 3-year-old daughter was trapped in a car seat inside.
"First, I tried the driver's side door," Kanno said. He then tried to go to the other side, but it was blocked by mud.
"I ran back to the driver's side and I pulled pretty hard, and I somehow got it open enough that I could get in," Kanno said.
The only thing he could see was the bottom of the girl's car seat, and one little leg sticking out. He said the girl was lifeless when he finally got her out.
"It was like pulling out a rag doll. She was just limp and pale and blue-faced; her eyes were rolled back," he said.
The teen, who'd taken a first-responder class at the Bridgerland Applied Technology Center two years ago, then began CPR. After a few chest compressions and rescue breaths the girl began to cough.
The girl, 3-year-old Amara Young, was flown to the hospital in critical condition. Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Cameron Roden said she's still in a medically-induced coma.
"I'm pretty happy that she's at least having a chance and that she's fighting right now," Kanno said.
The entire event has been pretty difficult for the teenager.
"I was pretty upset. I cried for quite some time," Kanno said. "I'd keep hearing the driver screaming about the baby, and I'd keep seeing that baby as I pulled her out of the water. Those thoughts just keep going through your mind over and over."
But Kanno said his father, a retired Utah Highway Patrol trooper, always taught him and his brothers to help other people, no matter the situation.
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Story compiled with contributions from Marc Giauque and Nadine Wimmer.
