Driver survives 300-foot plunge off California cliff

photo A towing company worker prepares to pull the mangled wreckage of a car driven over a Palos Verdes Peninsula cliff by a 19-year-old Los Angeles man on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013, in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.

PALOS VERDES ESTATES, Calif. - A driver who plunged 300 feet off of a Southern California ocean cliff was rescued after firefighters waded into the surf to free him from the car.

KNBC-TV says the 19-year-old man was hospitalized in critical condition and told paramedics that he intentionally drove of the cliff in the Bluff Cove area of Palos Verdes Estates.

Authorities were called to the scene at about 2 a.m. Friday. They found the car being slammed by waves.

Los Angeles County firefighters, lifeguards and local police helped in the rescue. The driver was finally pulled free and flown to a hospital.

The crash site is on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

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