By William A. Weathers
Enquirer staff writer

MORGAN TOWNSHIP - Four girls were hospitalized Saturday night after their car went off Bay Road and landed on its roof in a small creek.

Passers-by assisted two of the girls who were still in the water in the 3-foot deep creek.

The crash occurred about 8:05 p.m. in the 7500 block of Bay Road, just west of Schoenling Road, the Butler County Sheriff's Office said.

Two of the girls were taken to Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, and the two others were taken to Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton. Their names had not been released Sunday night, but all had reportedly been released from the hospitals.

John Hingle, his wife Helen and their children, who live near the crash site, thought they heard someone crying out when they drove over the small bridge Saturday night.

"We heard somebody screaming," Hingle recalled Sunday.

But the couple, who both work at Children's Hospital Medical Center (he's a pharmacist, she's a nurse) didn't see anyone. They dropped the children off at their nearby home and returned to the bridge. They quickly located the source of the screams.

"Two girls were in the water next to the passenger side of the car,'' Hingle said. "The car was on its top. Both girls were crying.

Hingle and his wife went down in the creek to assist the girls, one of whom was holding the younger girl's head above water, Hingle said.

"My wife talked to them to help keep them conscious."

Both girls were conscious when rescue personnel from Morgan Township arrived, Hingle said.

The driver appeared to be about 16 years old, and the other three seemed to several years younger, he said.

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E-mail bweathers@enquirer.com