A man was pulled out of a ravine near the San Jose foothills after he drove off a hillside and landed in the creek about 100 feet below.
About 20 firefighters, 10 police officers and several fire personnel huddled on Clayton Road, east of Marten Avenue, for more than two hours early Thursday morning to rescue the man, said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Mitch Matlow.
The driver crashed through a chain-link fence on the side of Clayton Road at around 4:30 a.m., Matlow said, and continued all the way down into a creek at the bottom of the hillside, where his car rolled over.
He pulled himself out of the car, but sustained injuries that would have made it difficult to hold onto rescue ropes, said public information manager Erica Ray. Emergency personnel instead loaded the man onto a stretcher and pulled him up the hillside while strapped in.
“It was very steep terrain, and the last 10 feet were a vertical wall,” Ray said.
Clayton Road runs from East San Jose out to Highway 130, through hilly stretches that include sharp turns. It was not immediately clear where exactly the man crashed on the roadway, Ray said.
Authorities set up on a driveway that extends about 25 feet below Clayton Road — but the man remained another 75 feet or so further down the hillside than that, Matlow said, making the rescue initially more complex.
The man was transported to the hospital to be treated for his injuries.
Clayton Road reopened by about 8 a.m. after the rescue was concluded.
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