Crew rescues man stranded on Central Coast cliff, video

March 1, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

More than 30 hours after a man drove his car over the side of a Central Coast cliff, a rescue crew hoisted him off the location — about 400 feet below Highway 1 — where he was stranded earlier this week.

Even though the victim had been stranded for more than one day, he only suffered moderate injuries, according to the CHP. 

The man, an employee of Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, reportedly left work at 11:30 p.m. Sunday and never arrived home. At about 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Pacific Grove police requested that the CHP Coastal Division Air Operations Unit fly the coastline from Post Ranch Inn to Monastery Beach in Carmel to search for a vehicle that possibly went over a cliff. 

A CHP airplane was already in Monterey County for a separate call, and it responded to the area to search below Highway 1. The airplane crew arrived and quickly located a vehicle about 400 feet down a cliff and near the beach below. A man was standing next to the vehicle frantically waving a makeshift flag at the airplane. 

Shortly later, a CHP helicopter responded from Paso Robles. The helicopter arrived overhead the scene after about 40 minutes.

As the helicopter arrived, the Big Sur fire chief roped down to the victim and began to assess his injuries. The man stated that, while driving home late Sunday night, he swerved to avoid a deer in the roadway, causing his vehicle to veer off the road and roll several hundred feet down a cliff. The driver said he was he was ejected through the sunroof of his vehicle as the car rolled down the cliff. 

There is neither beach access nor trails at the crash site. The vehicle was not visible from the roadway, officers said.

The helicopter hoisted the victim and the fire chief off the cliff. The helicopter then flew the victim to Natividad Medical Center in Salinas for further treatment and care. He appeared to be in stable condition.