Driver in hospital after car goes over cliff at Jerbourg
A man is in hospital after the car he was driving went over the cliff edge at Jerbourg.
It is understood he has potentially life-changing injuries.
All emergency services rushed to Jerbourg Point at about 9.30am after a number of 999 calls were made relating to a car that had gone off the edge of the cliff.
A major incident was declared and Police, Ambulance & Rescue the Fire & Rescue Service, the Coastguard, cliff rescue teams and Civil Protection volunteers were all in attendance.
‘Officers have attended and located the vehicle some way down the cliff containing a male occupant who has sustained injuries,’ said Sergeant Matt Le Page at the scene.
‘Officers made their way down, treated those injuries and awaited the ambulance and fire services.’
Police gave first aid to the driver to stabilise his initial injuries.
Ambulance and fire crews assisted with the casualty and helped to extract him from the car, and he was brought back up by the cliff rescue team.
He was then taken to hospital by ambulance before shortly before noon.
A double-crewed ambulance attended the scene with an emergency medical technician paramedic.
‘One person was assessed and given initial treatment at the scene and the cliff team assisted with extrication of the casualty before they were conveyed to hospital in a waiting ambulance,’ said a St John Ambulance spokesman.
‘Incidents of this nature are rare, but the ambulance service regularly trains alongside other emergency responders for events like this.’
One person who did not see the incident itself but witnessed the safety mission said that it was like no other operation he had seen before.
He said that the car was not very visible from the car park, but if it had gone much further it would have reached a sheer drop and could have been even worse.
‘Every single emergency service which could have been there, was there and it was extremely busy with people,’ he said.
‘They had drones up to locate the car, boats in the sea as a precaution and everyone was working together and hoping for the best outcome.’
The vehicle, thought to be a Smart car, was buried among the shrubbery some way down the cliff face.
A crane attended the incident to help cliff rescue assess whether the car was easily removable, but there was no easy way to remove it identified at the time.
While it is not expected to remain there permanently, it will still there for now.
