A four-year-old girl rescued her severely injured younger sister from a car crash that killed their mother by dragging her out of the vehicle and wrapping both their bodies in a blanket while they waited for help to arrive.
Jessica Marie Rath, 26, from Oregon, was driving to pick up her fisherman husband when police say she fell asleep at the wheel, veered off the road and slammed into a tree.
Passing motorists who stopped to investigate the damaged tree several hours after the crash -found the two girls, Aryanna Rath, 4, and two-year-old sister Lylah Huff.
Jessica had been driving to collect her husband, Keaton, from a fishing trip.
When she failed to turn up , Keaton wrote on his Facebook wall saying, 'My wife n kids are missing. if anyone can help please call 791-****.'
After the crash, the girls apparently waited for help for several hours in rainy conditions and overnight temperatures that dipped below freezing.
Kraai McClure and Scott Beautler were driving by the spot when they stopped to check out the gashed tree trunk, they told TV news.
The girls were taken first to an Astoria hospital, where their father met them. They were then airlifted to a Portland hospital.
More on Parentdish: Girl, six, saved younger sister from runaway car