Man survives after truck falls 270-feet down embankment

A 27-year-old man is miraculously alive after his pickup went over Hawk Cliff near Port Stanley.

Fire fighters estimate that from the top to bottom of the embankment is around 270 feet.

“When emergency services responded, we honestly believed that we were going to be dealing with a fatal motor vehicle collision,” said Sgt. Ed Sanchuk of the West Region OPP.

Central Elgin Fire spent most of the morning working with a heavy-rescue team, pulling the truck up the cliff.

A truck fell more than 250-feet down an embankment at Hawk Cliff near Port Stanley, Ont. on Tuesday Oct. 23, 2024. The driver survived. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

Around 6:00 p.m. Tuesday first responders were called after a truck went over the edge at the end of Hawks Cliff Road at the Lake Erie shoreline.

Ornge Air Ambulance had difficulty finding a place to land as the terrain is tough to navigate, and Central Elgin Fire crews went down the embankment to rescue the driver, who survived the crash despite going more down the steep embankment which is filled with large rocks.

The truck came to rest at the bottom of the cliff.

“We responded with our technical high-angle team and determined that there was a vehicle over the cliff,” said Chief Ray Ormerod of Central Elgin Fire Rescue Services (CEFR).

Central Elgin Fire Rescue teams work to pull up a volunteer fire fighter who rappelled down the cliff to hook cable onto the truck at the bottom of the 250-foot embankment. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“The crews went down, found an individual down at the bottom of the hill. assessed him with the help of EMS, Ornge [Air Ambulance] and OPP we were able to transport him to the water treatment plant where it was a little more level ground.”

With difficulty accessing the location, CEFR called in their sea-doo.

“It has a platform on the back of it, we were able to strap the stokes onto the back of the sea-doo on the platform, and then just made their way down to the pumping station”.

The 27-year-old from St. Thomas, Ont. was transported to a trauma centre hospital by EMS with the assistance of Ornge Air Ambulance.

The driver’s injuries have been reported as serious, but non-life threatening.

The road has a guard rail and fence at the dead end. The truck went through a gate to the right of the guard rail, around a corner, and about 40-50 metres to the edge of the cliff.

Neighbour Frank Hough has lived on Dexter Line east of Port Stanley for decades and is familiar with similar instances, “I've seen people drive off the cliff committing suicide, and I've seen people drinking and driving off the cliff and I know a guy who went over on his snowmobile.”

Neighbour Frank Hough says he’s heard of many vehicles which have gone over Hawk Cliff during his lifetime. His friend went over accidentally on a snowmobile and lived (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

“You can survive. It just depends on how you happen to land and where you land, because a lot of places it's very soft landing”.

He and other neighbours would like to see the road closed permanently, or at least have some measures in place to stop vehicles before they reach the end of the road.

“They should actually block the road off,” insisted Hough.“If they want to use it for a birdwatching sanctuary or anything else, at least have some kind of restrictions. Make sure you can’t drive back there, especially at night.”

As rescue crews worked to remove the truck from the bottom, everyone involved was shocked that the man survived.

“I'm just happy to see that this person is alive, and in the hospital right now,” said Sanchuk.