Driver spends night teetering on cliff face after car plunges 300ft from road

Woman, 56, lost control of car in thick sea mist near St Agnes in Cornwall and was found by jogger next morning A driver spent a terrifying night stuck in her car as it teetered on the face of a Cornish cliff. The woman, who was injured but conscious, was eventually winched to safety after a jogger chanced upon the vehicle at St Agnes, seven miles north-west of Truro, and raised the alarm. It is thought the 56-year-old woman swerved off the road on Monday afternoon. The car is believed to have bumped down the 90-metre (300ft) cliff, which is steep but not sheer, and somehow come to a stop. Nobody saw the car and the woman because the cliff was cloaked in sea mist. She spent the night stranded. The jogger who raised the alarm, holidaymaker Ben Stafford, told how he slid down the slope on Tuesday morning to get to the injured woman. He said: “I just tried to keep her calm, and told her help was on the way.” The woman had been driving along the road at around 4pm on Monday when it was really misty. “She missed the road and started tumbling down the cliff. It is only by the grace of God that the car stopped by the cliff edge,” said Stafford. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: “Coastguard rescue officers on scene were able to establish that the 56-year-old woman inside the car was injured but conscious and that the vehicle had gone over the cliff the previous day. “The car was secured in place by the coastguards and fire and rescue officers and the woman was then extracted from the vehicle. “The coastguard rescue team winched the casualty up the cliff and she was transferred to Treliske hospital, Truro, by RAF helicopter.” Steven Morris guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 26, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.