A retired Navy medic pulled a driver to safety on Tuesday after the man survived a horrifying plunge off a cliff into the Pacific Ocean when his car smashed through a guard rail on a Southern California road.
The retired Navy corpsman pulled the driver from the car and gave him first aid until other rescuers arrived, first responders told NBC affiliate KNSD in San Diego.
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Video footage from the scene shows the unidentified man's Subaru Forester on its side in the ocean surf just off a coastal road in Carlsbad.
The driver crossed multiple lanes of traffic around 5 p.m. Tuesday before crashing through a guard rail and plunging dozens of feet on to the beach, police told KNSD.
The man somehow only suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his leg, pelvis and chest, police told KNSD. First responders hauled him up the cliff to get him to a nearby hospital.
Rescue crews used a crane to haul the vehicle out of the water and back up onto the road.
Authorities said the good Samaritan who pulled him out of the water disappeared up the cliff before they could get his name.
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