Woman survives 200ft Jeep plunge off cliff
BY ANDREW HAY reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk A DRIVER involved in a crash that left her stranded at the bottom of a 200ft cliff survived for a week by drinking water from the radiator of her wrecked car.
Angela Hernandez, 23, was rescued seven days after she disappeared when hikers spotted her partially submerged Jeep Patriot on Friday.
Her disappearance had captured widespread attention in California, after she and her vehicle were last seen on a surveillance camera video about 50 miles north of the Big Sur area where she was found.
Hernandez, from Portland, Oregon, was conscious when she was found but suffering a shoulder injury.
Rescuers managed to get her up the cliff and to a helicopter which flew her to a nearby hospital. Last night, she was in a stable condition but appeared to have suffered a concussion as a result of the accident.
Hernandez told investigators she swerved to avoid hitting an animal and plunged over the cliff on July 6.
She stayed alive “by drinking water from the radiator of her vehicle”, according to the Highway Patrol. Monterey County Sheriff ’s Office spokesman John Thornburg said: “It’s usually the fall that gets them or the ocean that gets them and she was lucky to survive both.”
Her sister Isabel said: “This is very traumatic and will be a slow recovery process.”