Crime & Safety
Driver Survives Plunge Down 30-Foot Cliff
Firefighters plucked the driver from the water in San Pedro after his SUV plunged over the cliff.
SAN PEDRO, CA — A rescue team plucked a 33-year-old out of the ocean after his car plunged down a 30-foot cliff in San Pedro. The car landed vertically on the rocky beach below, yet the driver somehow escaped with only minor injuries.
The crash happened just after 3 a.m. Monday at 4102 South Pacific Ave., according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.
The driver of an SUV "struck a curb, breached a guard rail and penetrated a fence, before tumbling down a 30 foot cliff, on to a rocky beach below," Humphrey said.
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He managed to climb from the wreckage and attempted to scale back up the cliff, but he couldn’t make it. So he tried swimming to safety according to the fire department.
WOW! Rescue teams respond to reports of a car going over a cliff in #SanPedro. Miraculously, @Newzysteph reports the driver was able to get out of his Nissan suv after the accident. The driver then jumped into the water below & swam to a nearby rescue boat. #FoxLA @GDLA pic.twitter.com/8DLnYE4bu5
— Rita Garcia (@TheRitaGarcia) August 12, 2019
" As LAFD arrived by land and sea, the man was found swimming in the Pacific Ocean," he said. "An LAFD rescue diver assisted him aboard a fireboat, providing medical care for the man's non-life threatening injuries."
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Firefighters took the injured man to a dock in the Fort MacArthur area, and paramedics took him to a nearby trauma center in fair condition, Humphrey said.
Crews searched the SUV, cliff and beach to make sure there are no other victims
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