NATIONAL NEWS - A motorist who drove off Chapmans Peak Drive in Cape Town this morning has been safely rescued with the help of divers and a helicopter after at least five emergency services were called out to find him.
He has been identified as a 32-year-old man from Johannesburg who recently relocated to Cape Town for work. It is being speculated that the driver plunged off the steep cliff face after being pursued for trying to avoid paying the R42 toll on the scenic mountain route.
Craig Lambinon from the National Sea Rescue Institute said they were activated at 5.14am on Monday to assist the SA Police Services‚ Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services‚ Western Cape Government Health emergency services and Cape Medical Response after a vehicle had been witnessed plunging down Chapmans Peak on the Hout Bay side of the peak.
Chapmans Peak Drive was closed to traffic during the rescue operation.
Two NSRI rescue swimmers were deployed from a sea rescue craft onto the shoreline where they located the vehicle approximately 50 meters from the waters edge.
The driver was found by the NSRI rescue swimmers approximately a third of the way from the roadside. “It believed that the man had been ejected from the vehicle as it rolled over terrain and down the mountainside‚” he said.
