2 Children Escape Car That Plunged Into Lake; Father's Body Recovered

Two children have managed to escape a car that crashed into Michigan's Lake Macatawa. Their father, who was driving the vehicle, did not survive the crash.

Police responded to reports of a vehicle crashing into Lake Macatawa located in Ottawa County's Park Township at around 9 a.m. Sunday.

After an investigation, it was found that two girls, aged 8 and 10, were with their father in the car when it crashed into Lake Macatawa at around 2:00 a.m. The two girls were able to escape the vehicle through the emergency exit in its trunk, WZZM 13 reported.

Soaking wet, they took shelter on a porch on a cold night and managed to get help only in the morning. One of them knocked on the door of Kevin Macleod's home in Park Township seeking assistance at about 7 a.m., WWMT reported.

Macleod said when he opened the door, he saw a shivering child with only one shoe.

"When I opened the door, I saw a shivering kid with one shoe on... there is snow on the ground so I thought something is not right here," he said, as per WGHN. "She says that her and her sister were driving with their dad, their car went into the lake, they made it out, the slept on the porch of the house across the street. That's about eight hours they were out in the cold and that's really tough."

Macleod and his wife took the children in to help them warm up until the authorities arrived. The two girls were taken to a hospital for medical evaluation and were released Sunday afternoon after treatment for cold exposure.

The dive team of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office located the sunken car in the lake at around 2 p.m. The body of the 52-year-old father was then retrieved from the vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The names of the father and the two children were not released by the authorities, pending the ongoing investigation. Police are looking into the cause of the crash.

Meanwhile, Lt. Eric Westveer with the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office thanked the good Samaritans who helped the two kids.

"My message to them would be thank you," Lt. Westveer said, according to the outlet. "I think what they did helping those girls partly saved their lives because of the cold exposure they had."