A lucky man, 56, has been rescued after surviving five days inside his smashed car in the wilderness following a 150 feet plunge down a ravine.
Danny Sansbury was found alive on Sunday morning after passersby noticed tire tracks leading away from a roadway in Cowlitz County in southwest Washington state and called 911.
His green pickup truck was discovered down a steep and wooded ravine, according to the Cowlitz County Fire & Rescue Department.
‘Firefighters hiked down the hill through waist deep brush expecting the worst, but found the driver of the truck was still alive but severely injured and ill,’ the fire department said in a Facebook statement.
Sansbury, who was seriously injured, was reporting missing last week, and Sheriff’s deputies at the scene confirmed the truck matched the description of his vehicle.
A rope system was set up to get Sansbury up the steep hillside after he was removed the beat up truck.
He was then taken by ambulance to a nearby school where a Lifeflight helicopter picked him up and took him to Peace Health Southwest, where he remains in critical condition.
‘I still can’t believe he survived for six days like that,’ his friend of 30 years Terri Peck told KOIN 6 News.
Terri claimed that she knew he was in a ravine when she heard he was missing and had been checking ravines when her friend was found.
Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Joe Tone told the local outlet authorities had been looking into any possible foul play before Sansbury was found alive.
‘They had no idea where the gentleman was at, and we were going down that typical missing persons-type path until the citizen – local – found the car,’ said Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Joe Tone.
