Samaritan Climbs 300 Feet Down Cliff to Rescue Elderly Man
More good news thanks to another Good Samaritan!
KGO-TV in La Honda, California reports “The California Highway Patrol is grateful for a good Samaritan who found a missing elderly man who drove off a Peninsula cliff and tumbled hundreds of feet down from the roadway Monday night.”
The older man who had been reported missing wound up off the road and 300 feet down a hill in the La Honda area where he survived a night out in his Land Rover in the cold.
Tuesday morning, a man in his 70’s spotted the vehicle and alerted the California Highway Patrol — but wait, there’s more!
“He went back to the scene and tied a rope to his trucks and climbs down the hill to try and assist the man who tried to climb down the hill,” Art Montiel said. Montiel is the Public Information Officer for the CHP Redwood City office.
CHP, deputies, and fire crews arrived shortly before noon to complete the successful rescue.
Officer Montiel says CHP is always happy when the public reports information. The rescued driver is receiving treatment for head wounds but is expected to be just fine.
The good Samaritan’s family is very proud of him and reported more details of the rescue on their Facebook page, identifying the rescuer as Billy “Obie” Obermeyer.
According to their report, after Obie spotted the truck 300 feet down the cliff, “He returned, found a nearby worker to help him, came back home to have me call 911, then he and Nato grabbed ropes, which they tied to Ob’s truck, and went down the very steep, poison oak cliff.”
“They reached the man, Lee, who was in bad shape. They shaded him with an umbrella that fell out of his truck, and gave him cold water. He had been there all night long, and tried too crawl, but had broken ribs.”
As it turns out, Obie had a bit of a struggle following the rescue according to his family. They heard over the radio there was another victim experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath. He pulled himself up by the ropes and so did Nato.
“Ob was treated by paramedics, and they said he should go to hospital, and he said ‘only in a helicopter’. Ob said he was milking it a bit, but he was very hot, and short of breath after the climb. He is ok now.”
“Turns out, the rescuers said the man would have probably died down there had Ob not spotted him. It was a miracle that Ob saw where he went over.”
Well, when you have a good Samaritan willing to risk his life to help someone else, that’s a bit of a miracle, too.
