(AP, WJLA) - A mother and her two daughters were rescued from a BMW teetering on a California freeway bridge after a gravel truck rear-ended the car then plunged into a creek, instantly killing the trucker.

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The Santa Barbara News Press says the truck hit 36-year-old Kelli Lynne Groves' BMW on Thursday afternoon in the northbound lanes of U.S. Route 101 in rural Buellton, about 25 miles north of Santa Barbara.

The BMW struck the bridge railing and teetered over a 100-foot drop into the creek with Groves, who is an elementary school teacher, and her two daughters, Sage,10, and Milo, 10 months, trapped inside.

As luck would have it, a U.S. Navy construction crew with a huge fork lift just happened to pass by at the right time. The apparatus stabilized the vehicle and allowed rescuers to pull the San Juan Capistrano family to safety an hour later.

They family was hospitalized but all three are expected to survive.

The trucker, Charles Allison Jr., died instantly when his rig crashed into the creek and burst into flames.