An off-duty RCMP officer and his wife are being hailed as heroes by the mother of a two-year-old girl they rescued from a partly submerged car near Delta, B.C.

The girl's 25-year-old mother, Alyse McDonald, was on her way to work with her two children in the car when she swerved to avoid ducks crossing Highway 17, south of Vancouver.

Alysee McDonald and daughter Haylee relive the day's ordeal from the comfort of their home. (CBC) McDonald lost control of the car, which overturned and became partially submerged in a water-filled ditch along the roadside.

"The first thing I thought was, 'I am going to die here,'" McDonald told CBC News.

McDonald and her son Jordan, 6, managed to squeeze out, but young Haylee was stuck in her car seat.

Off-duty Const. Aaron Jabs happened to be driving by with his wife in their own vehicle when they saw Jordan standing by the road trying to wave people down for help.

Const. Aaron Jabs and his wife helped free the two-year-old from the car. (RCMP) The couple stopped and ran to the scene, where McDonald was trying frantically to get Haylee out of the car.

Jabs and his wife, whose name has not been made public, were able to free the child.

The three occupants of the crashed vehicle were not seriously injured, but were transported to hospital for examination and released.