The California Highway Patrol reported a vehicle over the side of Gibraltar Road near Santa Barbara Thursday night in the same location as an early-morning injury accident in the exact same spot.
According to emergency radio traffic, the vehicle went about 200 feet over the side around 9:45 p.m. and tire marks were seen on the roadway.
The reporting party, apparently a person in the car, was attempting to help guide rescuers to the location by turning on headlights and honking the horn while responders walked along the side of the road with flashlights.
Responders found the car and the two occupants, men in their 20s, around the 2900 block of Gibraltar Road, which is the same location as an over-the-side accident reported at 1:53 a.m. Thursday.
“After rolling over down the steep cliff side several times their vehicle came to rest against another vehicle 400 feet down that had gone down the side only 20 hours earlier,” sheriff’s department spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said.
Paramedics, fire and rescue personnel were lowered to the men, who were placed in stretchers and brought up to the roadway with rope systems, Hoover said.
Montecito Fire Protection District and Santa Barbara City Fire Department crews responded to the scene along with Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Team members.
Two people were in the vehicle and were packaged up by paramedics and Search and Rescue Team members, and then helped up to the roadway, said Santa Barbara City Fire Battalion Chief Mike de Ponce, who was safety officer on the incident.
Both people had moderate injuries and were transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, he said.
The CHP pinged the caller’s cell phone which was critical in finding the exact location of the car in the dark, de Ponce said.
This over-the-road accident was in the same spot as the Thursday morning incident and there are now three cars down there, de Ponce noted.
The CHP is investigating the accident, but de Ponce noted that there is a sharp turn on that area of Gibraltar Road.
CHP earlier referred to the location as “at the hairpin.”
Two other men were rescued by rope system in the Thursday morning crash over the side of the road.
Both men had minor injuries and were transported to the hospital, according to authorities.
Hoover noted that those two men, in their early 20s, were from Santa Barbara and had been driving up Gibraltar Road “when they did not successfully navigate the sharp turn in the road and went off the side.”
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
