ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - A mother and her three children are alive thanks to a police officer, firefighters, and a good samaritan who all kept the family calm after a Saturday morning car crash into the River Des Peres.

St. Louis fire captain Dan Sutter tells KMOX News the family was driving on a road about a half mile east of Chippewa, when their car apparently hit a patch of ice and slid out of control into the water.

Sutter says none of the four suffered life-threatening injuries, “Given the distance the car traveled after having left the road, down a hill and embankment and into the river, they are certainly blessed.”

Sutter says all three children were in child restraints, and he attributes that to saving their lives.