A couple plucked from the bottom of a ravine early Tuesday was rescued not because of repeated tries on a cell phone accessing GPS but by the voice of a diligent deputy driving along canyons, heard shouting out to them.
The ordeal began around midnight Monday when the couple’s car went over the side of Little Tujunga Canyon Road, just north of Sand Canyon Road, Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, wrote in post on the sheriff station’s Facebook page.
After the couple’s vehicle went off the side of the road, it plunged around a hundred feet into a steep canyon, she wrote.
“The driver called 911, and was in contact with our dispatchers, but for some reason he thought that their location was on Sand Canyon Road up near Sierra Highway,” Miller said in her post.
“Deputies searched for the vehicle for over an hour but were unable to locate it–meanwhile the couple’s phone battery was wearing down.”
The search had now extended into Tuesday morning.
“According to the couple’s GPS, they now thought they were by Golden Valley Road and Sierra Highway.
“However our 9-1-1 dispatch computer’s GPS said that the location of the vehicle was near Placerita Canyon Road and Sand Canyon Road,” Miller said.
The search continued and the battery on the couple’s phone continued to lose power until there was just the search and a silent cell phone out of power.
“We still had not been able to locate the couple, and now their phone battery went completely out and we lost all communication with them,” Miller said.
“It was now up to us to find them.”
Deputies expanded their search, and one deputy drove up and down Little Tujunga Canyon Road to Bear Divide with his patrol car’s windows down, listening intently to hear any sounds of distress.
“He then heard the sounds of banging on a car hood coming from down in the canyon.
“It was the couple,” Miller said.
The deputy immediately summoned for help and the man and woman were freed from their vehicle by firefighters.
A LA County Fire Department helicopter airlifted them to safety Tuesday.
“They were reported to be in good condition,” Miller said.
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