Man miraculously survives after driving car off 80ft cliff

An unidentified man miraculously survived after losing 

control of his car on the A259 and driving off an 80ft cliff. 

The incident happened on Sunday morning and 

investigators said that the man survived the drop 

because the car cleared the promenade below the cliff 

and landed on the water.

22 emergency response workers attended the scene to 

find the driver had climbed out of the car and made it to 

nearby rocks; he did not sustain any serious injuries.

Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp tweeted out after the 

event, saying, “Incredibly a man escaped without serious 

injury after his car went over the cliff near Roedean just 

after midnight and ended up in the sea.”

A Newhaven Coastguard said that emergency crews 

used ladders and ropes to rescue the driver, he said, “A 

second ladder was installed to use as a slipway and the 

casualty was secured into Newhaven Coastguard’s 

rescue stretcher and then using some of our cliff rescue 

equipment we were able to slide the stretcher up the 

ladders,”

“With nine members of various agencies on the three 

ropes and two of the Newhaven team at the top of the 

ladder we were able to bring the casualty up from the 

beach where they were handed into the care of 

paramedics.

“All the time the recovery operation was ongoing a 

member of the Brighton lifeboat crew who had swum 

ashore in a dry suit was inspecting the vehicle to check 

for any secondary casualties.”

Police are still investigating the incident.