Students help lift vehicle off a mom and two kids pinned by a car

LAYTON, Utah — A mom and two kids are hospitalized Tuesday after getting hit by a car in the parking lot of Layton Christian Academy.

Layton Christian Academy CEO Chris Crowder said the mother is an employee at the church’s day care. She was walking in the parking lot around 3:45 p.m. with her two kids when all three were run over by a driver who said she was “blinded by the sun,” Crowder said.

Crowder said the mother and her two-year-old son were pinned under the car. Her three-year-old daughter managed to crawl out from under the car.

Kids running to the scene

“I didn’t really know what was going on,” Crowder said. “I looked across the parking lot and noticed the car and they were screaming, and so I ran over there and I look under the car and I see mom and child underneath the car pinned. It was split second,” Crowder said.

Crowder ran into the school and gathered a group of more than 20 high school students to help lift the car enough so the victims could be pulled out, he said.

School surveillance video of the parking lots shows the kids running out of the school and surrounding the car to pick it up.

“We have about 220 domestic kids and over 300 international kids at the school. They just heard me yell. All these kids from different countries just come running out and lift it up,” he said.

‘Girls, boys, it didn’t matter. They just all took a spot in the car and lifted it,” Crowder said.

“They picked up the car on the one side, probably 20 to 30 kids, just an inch or two enough that the Air Force gentleman was able to pull them out. The kids were heroes as well as the gentleman that was there and pulled them out,” Crowder said.

The two-year-old boy was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital. The mom and the daughter were transported by ambulance to the hospital.

Crowder said the mom took the brunt of the injuries as she was cradling her boy to protect him. She is expected to have to undergo several surgeries.

All three are expected to survive, and Crowder said that’s a miracle.

“It’s a miracle. We just have seen God do so many things around here, and this is one of them,” Crowder said.

Police said the driver of the car is cooperating with the investigation.

A GoFundMe account has been set up by the school to help the family with medical expenses.