WATCH: Driver rescued after thrown 350 feet from car in Sonoma
JENNER, Calif. - A man is lucky to be alive after being ejected 350 feet from his car that plunged over a cliff in Sonoma County.
The incident happened around 8 a.m. Sunday along the Sonoma coast near the Jewell Gulch/Myers Grade area on Highway 1.
The driver's Ford Automatic Crash Notification System alerted authorities to the crash, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. The law enforcement agency's Henry-1 helicopter was dispatched to the scene.
A ranger located the vehicle about 200 feet down from the roadway, where a large tree had stopped it from rolling further down the cliff.
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The ranger climbed down the steep embankment to check the vehicle for occupants as the Henry-1 lowered a 100-foot longline rescue with a paramedic and officer.
According to the sheriff's office, no one was found inside the vehicle, prompting an extensive search of the rugged terrain for anyone who might have been ejected or escaped the wreckage.
Fire crews from the Monte Rio Fire Protection District and the Timber Cove Fire Department set up a rope system to deploy personnel to assist with the search.
After 45 minutes of searching, Henry-1 canvassed the surrounding ravines and located disturbed dirt approximately 300 feet down from the vehicle. Continuing down the ravine, the crew discovered a man, lying in a patch of brush at the bottom of a tree, about 350 feet down from the wreckage.
The man was critically injured. He was placed into a rescue device and flown to the nearby Sonoma County Fire District helicopter, which then transported him to a local trauma hospital where he is expected to survive, the sheriff's office said.