Good Samaritans are undoubtedly the reason three children who were trapped in a car submerged in the Logan River are alive to experience the New Year.

On a snowy, slick Utah road, a car slid down a 10-foot embankment and overturned in the river. The driver was able to free himself, but his 9-year-old daughter, 4-year-old son and a 9-year-old friend were trapped.

"We came around a turn and then…we looked under the bridge and we saw a car upside down in the water," said Chris Willden, who was driving down the canyon with his family. Willden said he and his father were the first of about eight men who jumped into the icy water to try to free the children.

One even used a handgun to shoot open a window.

(READ the story in DeseretNews – or the AP story in Houston Chronicle)