Woman survives 4 nights in California mountains after truck falls into canyon
(CNN) — A woman spent four nights trapped in her mangled truck after she swerved to avoid hitting a deer and toppled to the bottom of a California canyon.
She was driving near Mount Baldy on Wednesday on a road that winds up the mountain outside Los Angeles. Her pickup truck fell 250 feet onto the embankment, leaving her trapped with a broken ankle in freezing temperatures, according to the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team.
With no cell service, the woman had no way to call for help, the rescue team said. She survived off the supplies she had in her car.
A passing fisherman heard her faint cries for help on Sunday.
“Her truck couldn’t be seen from the road, so his quest for new fishing waters ultimately saved her life,” the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team wrote in a Facebook post.
Fisherman Chris Ayres said he found her standing in her truck, her head poking out of her window.
“I don’t know how she survived it,” Ayres told CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS. “I saw the steering wheel, was almost folded like a taco. Her head must have hit that.”
She had bowls set up in her truck to catch rainwater, Ayres said.
When Ayres spotted her, there was still no cell service. He tried to flag down an ambulance, but it didn’t stop.
Finally, he stopped a forest service truck and the agency was able to send in a rescue crew.
A Los Angeles County Fire Air Operations team hoisted her up and transported her to the hospital, the San Dimas Mountain Rescue Team said.
The rescue crew told KCAL/KCBS they don’t know if she would have survived another night.
“It’s got to be God-led, I happened to stop in that one spot,” Ayres said. “It’s almost like fate.”