Teen ejected from car survives 100-foot cliff fall, car landing on her

A 16-year-old girl driving with friends escaped serious injury after she was ejected from a car that plunged 100 feet (30 meters) off a cliff in northern Arizona, and the vehicle landed on top of her, police said on Thursday.

Rescuers worked for more than four hours on Wednesday to free the teenager from a space created by a depression in the overturned car’s roof, police said.

“It appeared her body occupied part of this space thus avoiding the full weight of the car,” Dwight D’Evelyn, spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, said in a statement.

Rescue crews reported the driver was conscious and able to speak throughout the ordeal. She was flown to Flagstaff Medical Center for treatment. Her two passengers, girls aged 16 and 17, also only suffered minor injuries, D’Evelyn said.

Police said the youths were on their way home when they took a corner too fast and lost control of their four-door sedan. The vehicle flipped over as it tumbled off the road and came to rest upside down, with the driver pinned underneath.

Alcohol and drugs are not believed to have been a factor in the incident, D’Evelyn said.