Car takes plunge
Motorist ejected from vehicle as it tumbles 320 feet off of a cliff
A motorist ejected from his vehicle as it plunged more than 300 feet over the side of a cliff near Templin Highway was airlifted to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital on Friday morning.
The solo-vehicle incident happened shortly after 9:05 a.m. when a vehicle travelling northbound on Interstate 5 left the freeway, just south of Templin, California Highway Patrol Officer Josh Greengard said.
“This vehicle went down 320 feet,” he said. “The tow truck driver said (the vehicle) was unrecoverable.”
CHP shut down all lanes of the northbound I-5 for about 10 minutes to allow a Los Angeles County Fire Department rescue helicopter to land on the freeway.
At 9:40 a.m., paramedics treated the injured driver and transferred him to the helicopter.
“One patient was airlifted at 9:55 a.m.,” Heidy Kuang, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department said, identifying the vehicle as a pickup truck.
CHP officers kept the freeway’s number 4 lane — commonly referred to as the slow lane — closed for “a while,” Greengard said, noting that by 10:30 a.m. all lanes were open to traffic.
Regarding the truck, Greengard said CHP officers normally mark the “unrecoverable” vehicle with red or orange paint to indicate they’ve investigated the crash.