'I'm in the Lake . . . Help Me!'

Husband Listens on Phone as Wife and Baby Plunge in SUV

St. Mary's County resident Christian Lawson was at a work Christmas party Friday when his wife called on her cellphone. He could tell she was driving their SUV, which, he knew, meant their 2-month-old son, Nikolas, was in the back seat.

"Oh, my God!" Lee Ann Lawson blurted out as they spoke. Then the phone went dead.

What happened over the next 10 minutes -- wife driving off road into lake, wife and child floating away from the shore in the SUV, two strangers jumping into the cold water, wife handing baby out the window, wife escaping before the SUV sank in the lake -- ended with no one injured. But it certainly won't be a day the Lawsons will forget.

And the events may have been most terrifying for the person farthest from the accident, Christian Lawson, forced to hear about it in bits and pieces.

When his wife's phone initially died, he tried repeatedly to call her. She finally answered.

"I'm in the lake!" she said. "I'm sinking, help me, help me!"

Again, Christian Lawson said, the two lost contact.

They were married just a year and a half ago. She is 26. He is 27. Nikolas is their only child.

While the lake rescue was underway, Christian Lawson was in Crystal City. He services elevators.

Hurrying to his car, Christian Lawson realized he had no money to pay the parking attendant. He ran to an ATM a few buildings away. While getting money, he received good news: His wife and child were safely on shore. He also learned their location.

Lee Ann Lawson had been trying to turn her Chevrolet TrailBlazer left from St. Thomas Drive onto St. Charles Parkway in Waldorf. She lost control and drove into a small lake that runs adjacent to St. Charles Parkway, authorities said.

It was raining, and she had over-corrected when she lost control on the turn, she recalled Friday night. Within minutes, she said, two people had come out to get her. First she passed Nikolas out the window and then climbed out herself.

Authorities identified one of the rescuers as William Saunders, a retired captain with the Charles County Sheriff's Office and former commander of the patrol division. In an interview, Saunders said he climbed into the lake and made his way to the SUV, with the water up to his armpits. He and Lee Ann Lawson said that Saunders carried Nikolas out, holding the car seat over his head.

"Crash investigators believe the victim and her son would most likely have been unable to survive the crash if not for the valiant efforts" of Saunders and a female resident, the Sheriff's Office said in a written statement.

Speaking by phone from their home in Mechanicsville, the Lawsons said they could not be more thankful for the help they received. As for Nikolas, his parents said he appeared somewhat unfazed by the ordeal.

Asked if she thought Nikolas knew what had happened, Lee Ann Lawson said, "I hope not."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed this report.