Extra

Crews this morning pulled a man out from his car after he took a 100-foot plunge down an embankment in the Oakland hills three days ago, a fire battalion chief said. 

The 53-year-old man was spotted at about 10:50 a.m. by an East Bay Regional Park District ranger who saw a suspicious-looking guardrail near Grizzly Peak Boulevard and South Park Drive, Battalion Chief Robert Lipp said. 

"The ranger was driving and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something didn't look right," Lipp said. 

The ranger saw the man's silver car had gone over the hill about 100 feet, and the man was still in the car, Lipp said. 

About 30 fire and police personnel responded to the scene. Crews used a complex rope and pulley system to get the victim out of his car and taken to a local hospital. 

"It was a fairly involved effort," Lipp said. "We eventually secured him in a basket and lifted him out of there." 

The man was conscious and had obvious signs of trauma, Lipp said. He didn't know why the victim had crashed. 

He was taken by an ambulance to a local hospital at about 11:50 a.m. "We were initially going to airlift him, but we determined it would be faster to take him by road," Lipp said. 

There were no updates to the victim's condition as of 2:20 p.m.