Think you're having a bad day?
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2004 2:17 amA driver is recovering in hospital after a bizarre double accident which saw him crash into a roadside barrier and then fall 30 metres down sea cliffs while inspecting the damage.
The 42-year-old, who has not been named, slewed into the steel railings at Rottingdean, near Brighton, early yesterday, crumpling the wing of his car and damaging a wheel.
Sussex police and the Solent coastguard, who were alerted by a passerby, said the driver went to the side of the road to check the car and apparently slipped. He went over the barrier and straight down a rocky, vertical drop to the beach.
Rescuers were astonished to find him alive and conscious after landing in a solitary small pile of loose soil and grass on the boulder-strewn foreshore.
A spokesman for the coastguard, who reached the scene soon after 6.30am, said: "He's a lucky man. He landed on just about the only patch of soft stuff around."
The driver was carried along a path which skirts the base of the cliffs to an ambulance and taken to the Royal Sussex County hospital.
The coastguard spokesman said: "Fire crews also helped in the rescue after we were all called and initially told that someone had jumped off the cliff. The man suffered a broken pelvis, but it was a pretty miraculous survival."
The 42-year-old, who has not been named, slewed into the steel railings at Rottingdean, near Brighton, early yesterday, crumpling the wing of his car and damaging a wheel.
Sussex police and the Solent coastguard, who were alerted by a passerby, said the driver went to the side of the road to check the car and apparently slipped. He went over the barrier and straight down a rocky, vertical drop to the beach.
Rescuers were astonished to find him alive and conscious after landing in a solitary small pile of loose soil and grass on the boulder-strewn foreshore.
A spokesman for the coastguard, who reached the scene soon after 6.30am, said: "He's a lucky man. He landed on just about the only patch of soft stuff around."
The driver was carried along a path which skirts the base of the cliffs to an ambulance and taken to the Royal Sussex County hospital.
The coastguard spokesman said: "Fire crews also helped in the rescue after we were all called and initially told that someone had jumped off the cliff. The man suffered a broken pelvis, but it was a pretty miraculous survival."
