California Highway Patrol officers came to the rescue Friday of a motorist who crashed down a ravine alongside a rural road near the U.S.-Mexico border, winding up trapped in his damaged car with a badly injured leg.
The 57-year-old South Bay man made an emergency call about 8:30 a.m. to report the crash on State Route 94, west of SR-188 in the Potrero area.
“The driver did not know his location, only that he had been traveling for about six hours since leaving Chula Vista,” CHP public affairs Officer Kevin Pearlstein said.
Authorities used an electronic signal from the man’s cellphone to determine his general location. Officers then went to the area, and one drove around with his siren activated while speaking to the victim, who was able to use the sound to guide the personnel to him.
The officers found the man in his 2002 Chevrolet Camaro, about 200 feet down a rocky embankment, Pearlstein said. Firefighters freed him from the vehicle, and medics airlifted him to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego for treatment of a broken and nearly severed right foot.
— City News Service