Car drives off hillside, saved by tree in Santa Cruz Mountains

An amazing rescue Wednesday night in the Santa Cruz Mountains after a vehicle went off a cliff and got caught in a tree.

The car fell about 30 feet, then the nose of the Ford Mustang ended up wedged in a tree. Firefighters said this was a very technical rescue. They had to strap the car to the tree before they were able to remove the driver using the Jaws of Life.

They pulled him all the way up the cliff in a basket.

Amazingly, he had only moderate injuries.

Sgt. Daniel Hill with the California Highway Patrol said, “In essence that tree is the only thing that saved his life. Had that tree not been there that vehicle would’ve been so far down that embankment that it would’ve been difficult to find, if not impossible. The gentleman that was driving is lucky that he didn’t hurt anybody else and that he was able to escape this with only the most moderate of injuries.”

The road was closed for a few hours for the rescue operations. The highway patrol said the driver may face drunk driving charges.