CHP Locates, Rescues Imperiled Elderly Driver

An elderly El Sobrante man was found relatively uninjured on Monday morning after he apparently drove off a Contra Costa County roadway and crashed down a 300-foot embankment, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office requested help from a CHP helicopter unit at around 2:30 a.m. after being unable to locate the 88-year-old man who had disappeared while driving home several hours earlier, according to the CHP.

The sheriff's dispatch center had made cell phone contact with the man and provided the approximate global-positioning coordinates of his last known location to a responding helicopter crew.

The CHP concentrated its air search to the area of the San Pablo Dam boat ramp off of San Pablo Dam Road, and eventually located the man's vehicle 300 feet down a steep embankment, overturned, and surrounded by thick brush and trees.

Medical units reached the victim shortly thereafter, according to the CHP, and he was taken to John Muir Medical Center suffering from exposure to the cold and minor cuts and bruises.

The CHP is investigating the crash.