Woman survives for five days after crashing down ravine

July 17, 2010

In an incredible story of survival, a Carlsbad woman is recovering after crashing 300 feet down a ravine off Highway 166 about 2.5 miles east of Tepusquet Road. [KSBY]

The woman, who does not remember the accident, tried to call for help on her cell phone, but she had no reception. She honked her horn, but her car died before anyone responded.

She survived for five days on water from a nearby creek.

Then on July 13, a family traveling from Phoenix to Pismo Beach pulled over to water their dogs and noticed the smashed car down the ravine. The travelers helped the woman up to the road and called for help.

“She had a blanket, a flashlight and a couple of water bottles, but she did sustain herself by filling the water bottles with the river water,” Reggie Julius of the California Highway Patrol told KSBY. “You physically have to get out of your vehicle, out of your car, and walk down to the embankment and look down, and even in some areas of that embankment in looking over the edge, still wouldn’t have been able to see the vehicle.”

The woman suffered cuts and bruises but is expected to recover. Her husband had reported her missing on July 8.