Girl Hospitalized After 20 Minutes in Submerged Car

A 9-year-old Rialto girl who was trapped under water for more than 20 minutes in her mother’s car “was holding her own” Sunday at an Antelope Valley hospital, family members said.

The girl, Shanika Lister, was hospitalized Saturday after a dramatic rescue by Los Angeles County Firefighter Ron McFadden.

He dove into the 16-foot deep California Aqueduct and freed an unconscious Lister from her mother’s car.

Family members kept a vigil Sunday near Shanika’s bed.

“She’s got a long way to go, but she’s still with us,” Shanika’s grandmother, Barbara Courtney, said. “‘She’s holding her own.”

Shanika was a passenger in a 1998 Plymouth driven by her mother, Vicki Lister, who swerved to avoid hitting a car heading toward their vehicle in the wrong lane of the Pearblossom Highway, west of Palmdale, according to the California Highway Patrol. The driver of the other car, believed to be Dennis M. Byrnes, 49, was arrested Sunday at his Lancaster home on suspicion of felony hit-and-run driving, the CHP said.

Lister’s car crashed through a fence, flipped upside down and sank to the bottom of the aqueduct. The girl’s mother and another passenger, Mary Goodley of San Bernardino, managed to escape and swim to the surface.

But Shanika was trapped by her seat belt in the back seat until McFadden freed her. The accident occurred about 8:45 a.m.; authorities estimate that the girl was under water for 20 to 25 minutes.

She was originally listed in critical condition at Antelope Valley Hospital. Officials there refused Sunday night to comment on the girl’s condition.