two badly injured when vehicle plunges one hundred fifty feet down from Ortega Highway

A vehicle vaulted over a cliff along the Ortega Highway near the Orange and Riverside county line early Thursday, May 11, causing major injuries to both people inwards.

The hours-long effort to rescue them from one hundred fifty feet down an exceptionally steep slope, then get one into a medevac helicopter and another into an ambulance, compelled a total highway closure for several hours at the beginning of the morning commute.

Firefighters and the California Highway Patrol were called out to the highway, officially known as Highway 74, in the mountains near Tenaja Truck Trail about Two:45 a.m.

Guerero Sinoeago, a 25-year-old Westminster resident, was driving west in a one thousand nine hundred ninety nine Acura Integra and failed to negotiate a curve, according to a CHP news release.

The vehicle went over the north side of the road and down an embankment, trapping Sinoeago and his passenger, Glenn Coloma, a 19-year-old Orange County resident.

Several fire engines and truck companies tooled with rope-rescue equipment are based in strategic areas for situations like Thursday’s, said Battalion Chief Jeremy Snyder, who oversaw the squad`s rescue efforts.

A group called the haul team used a cord system to lower six people and a basket of equipment to the bottom, while the rest of the team waited at the top, Snyder said.

It wasn`t a vertical drop to the bottom, but it was close enough to have been unlikely to climb up or down the hill.

«It was very likely a 75-degree slope,» Snyder said.

Once they reached the bottom, he said, it became like any other crash scene «except any time you need something, you can`t just go get it» and have to wait for it to be lowered.

The mangled vehicle was facing parallel to the road.

«They had to use Sawzalls and basically disassemble the vehicle to get them out,» Snyder said. The process took about an hour and forty five minutes.

Snyder had requested Grace Air to fly the dudes to the hospital, but the company declined because of weather conditions, he said. He believed the helicopter would have been attempting to come from Hemet.

The weather was clear out of Fullerton, tho’, so a helicopter from Orange County Fire Authority was summoned about Four:45 a.m. It airlifted Sinoeago, the very first victim to be extricated and hauled back up the hill.

Coloma was brought up to the road by Five:45 a.m., then taken to the hospital by an ambulance, according to a Cal Fire report.

A SigAlert was issued and the highway was closed to traffic in both directions all the way from Nichols Road in Orange County to Grand Avenue in Riverside County, according to the CHP.

The highway re-opened before seven a.m. once the rescue and crash investigation were packaged up.

Officers do not know whether the studs were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash, according to the CHP news release.

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