Car Careens Off Ortega Highway Curve, 89 Feet Down Embankment

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA —Both directions of the Ortega Highway were shut down Tuesday morning as officials aided a trapped driver who went over the side of the winding roadway. The driver, a lone occupant of that vehicle, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, CalFire reports. The driver's condition is not currently known.

All lanes reopened by 9:15 a.m., according to California Highway Patrol.

California Highway Patrol initiated a full SigAlert just after 8 a.m., closing the road for the emergency response to rescue the driver, trapped 89 feet below the roadway, according to a CalFire spokesperson.

The crash occurred at the curve just past the Candy Store on the westbound Ortega Highway, two miles from Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, just shy of the Orange County line, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Emergency crews, including helicopter support, responded to the scene to extract the lone occupant from their perilous position in the car, according to CalFire.

A high school student and his mother phoned in the single-car crash that they witnessed while heading to school.

They told CHP operators that they saw the car in front of them "fail to navigate a curve, drive off the roadway and disappear from view." They reported the car "drove off the right shoulder embankment near a large tree" and that there would be "tire marks in the dirt" on the road's narrow shoulder.

The road closure trapped commuters in stop-and-go traffic from Lake Elsinore to San Juan Capistrano, the California Highway Patrol advised.

The initial report read Wednesday, rather than Tuesday morning.