Missing Bay Area man found alive next to car that went over cliff

A San Francisco Bay Area man reported missing on Monday was found alive on Tuesday with moderate injuries after driving off a cliff.

The unidentified man was rescued next to the overturned Land Rover that he drove over a cliff on the back roads of La Honda, the California Highway Patrol said.

A passerby spotted the man and vehicle at around 11:30 a.m. about 250 feet down a cliff on a road three miles west of State Route 35, the snaking highway also known as Skyline Boulevard that runs along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains, CHP spokesperson Art Montiel told SFGATE in a phone interview.

The man was first reported missing by his family at 9 p.m. on Aug. 22. "We don't know what time he drove over the cliff," Montiel said.

It's unknown what led the man to drive down the embankment. After the fall, he self-extracted from the car, a message posted on Cal Fire's San Mateo — Santa Cruz Unit Twitter page said. Cal Fire spokesperson Cecile Narboni added that sometime in the middle of the night, he was able to get out of the car and crawl about 30 feet, but he wasn't able to move beyond that point.

Firefighters arrived on scene and "used a rope system to bring him up in a basket," Cal Fire said.

Montiel said the man sustained head injuries and was transported to a hospital. He spent the night at the bottom of the embankment.