3-year-old hospitalized after family's recreational vehicle plunged through frozen lake

A 3-year-old boy was hospitalized Saturday after his family's side-by-side vehicle plummeted through an icy lake in northern Vermont, police said.

The family, which included two adults and two children, had been driving that evening over the frozen Lake Memphremagog in Newport – 60 miles north of the state's capital Montpelier – when the recreational vehicle broke through the ice and plunged them into the freezing water.

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By the time Newport police arrived, all four of them had pulled themselves from the water. But as officers approached, three people ran toward them pulling a sled carrying a man doing chest compressions on the 3-year-old, the department said Tuesday in a statement.

Officers pulled the sled to shore as the man continued with the chest compressions before an ambulance transported the boy to North Country Hospital for further treatment, police said.

The boy, who was underwater for what first responders estimated was up to five minutes, remained hospitalized Monday, WCAX-TV reported.

The three others victims were treated at the scene for signs of exhaustion and hypothermia and later drove to the hospital in their personal vehicles, according to police.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com