Hero Lexi Shymanski pictured with her mum Angela, baby Peter and her dad Travis

A five-year-old girl has been labelled a hero after she escaped a car wreck and saved the lives of her mother and four-month old brother.

Lexi Shymanski from Canada escaped her car seat and climbed a 40ft embankment to alert drivers on the road above to the serious accident involving her family.

Lexi’s mother Angela Shymanski had lost control of the family’s car in Calgary, Canada after she fell asleep at the wheel with Lexi and four-month-old Peter in the back seat.

The car plummeted forty feet below and knocked Angela unconscious. However, Lexi managed to unclip her car seat and climb up the 40ft rocky embankment to flag down drivers to help.

Emergency services immediately attended to the scene and the family was airlifted to hospital, where baby Peter was found to have bleeding on the brain and his mum suffered a broken back.

Speaking to Metro weeks after the accident Angela said: “It's crazy.

“I only can remember one or two times where she got out of her five-point harness previously. She somehow got out, adrenaline or whatever, and barefoot hiked up the embankment.

“It's crazy because the guy who came to see us in the hospital, he said the medics and the firemen needed ropes to get up and down that embankment, and she did it barefoot.

“It was only because she came up and flagged people down that anybody would have stopped.”

Angela, who is a swim instructor, broke her back in two places and can no longer work. The family has established a GofundMe page to support their recovery. Angela’s husband Travis has taken a leave of absence from work to help support his family in their recovery.

However, Angela revealed that she will be forever grateful to hero Lexi for saving their lives.

“It's amazing and we're just so glad she did that,” Angela said.

Online Editors