Melissa Grubbs, 38, 4-year-old boy killed, Darin Grubbs, 18, suffer minor injuries, after their car leaves U.S. 50 roadway and crashes, upside down, into a creek in Clermont County.

A crash on U.S 50. in Clermont County’s Stonelick Township sent a car into a creek, and set off a large scale emergency response. Troopers said Darin Grubbs fell asleep behind the wheel just before his car went off the road and down a steep embankment, tumbled into a creek and landed on its roof just before 11 p.m. Grubbs, 18, escaped with minor injuries, but a 4-year-old boy was still trapped in the nearly submerged car when firefighters arrived. The passenger compartment was full of water and the car was covered nearly to its wheels, according to Stonelick Township Fire Chief Matthew Rose. Rose said his firefighters worked with a tow truck to get the car off its top. That took about 20 minutes, but despite the extended period of time the car was in the water crews were still hopeful they would be able to save the boy because of the cold temperatures. They started CPR in the creek bed and the boy was rushed to the hospital, but could not be saved. His name hasn't been released. Meanwhile, when the vehicle was turned over, crews realized a second passenger, Melissa Grubbs, 38, had been swept away. Fire departments from Wayne Township, Jackson Township and Goshen were stationed at bridges downstream and the Hamilton County Urban Search and Rescue team was called in to help with the search for Grubbs. Rose called it a very dangerous search. “We were on cliffs and if you’d have fallen, you’d have been in the water and done – we wouldn’t know where we’d have picked you up at,” Rose said. The creek was much higher than normal and the water was moving very swiftly.