A woman is recovering in hospital after surviving a dramatic crash that saw her vehicle plunge nearly 100 metres down a cliff at Oribi Gorge on KwaZulu-Natal’s south coast.
KwaZulu Private Ambulance Service paramedics were dispatched to the scene along Oribi Gorge Road on Monday, where they discovered the injured driver on the roadside alongside police officers.
According to spokesperson Craig Botha, the woman recounted a harrowing sequence of events while medics stabilised her.
“She explained that she had lost control of the vehicle after what she believed was a tyre blowout. The car went over the edge and plummeted down the cliff,” Botha said.
Trapped at the bottom and out of sight from passing motorists, the woman reportedly kicked out a window to escape before beginning a painstaking climb back up the steep terrain to seek help.
“With no one knowing where she was, she had to force her way out of the vehicle and make her way back up the cliff herself,” Botha said.
Despite sustaining multiple injuries, including fractures to her spine, chest and limbs, she managed to reach the top, where she was eventually found by police patrolling the area.
Botha described her survival and climb to safety as extraordinary.
“The fact that she was able to get out of the vehicle with broken bones and still climb her way to the top is incredible something you’d usually only expect to see in a movie,” he said. “She is extremely fortunate not to have suffered more critical injuries or remained trapped down there.”
The woman remains in hospital, where she is receiving treatment and is expected to recover.