Girl, 3, Trapped in Sunken Car 30 Minutes, Rescued

Divers plunged into the dark, icy waters of New York Harbor to rescue a 3-year-old girl trapped in a sunken car for nearly 30 minutes after her father drove off a pier while showing her the lights of Manhattan.

“We got lucky,” said Harbor Police diver Kevin Collins. “That’s all there was to it.”

Jacqueline Williams of Staten Island was in critical condition today in the pediatric intensive care unit of St. Vincent’s Hospital on Staten Island, hospital officials said.

Jacqueline’s father, Francis Williams, 48, speaking from his hospital bed today, said, “I just drove my car off the pier. I forgot they tore the pier down.”