Chattanooga firefighters came to the rescue this morning after a motorist on Big Ridge Road in Hixson saw another vehicle slide off the road into a ravine.
Bruce Garner, spokesman for the Chattanooga Fire Department, said the wreck happened near the intersection with Fairview Drive just after 8 a.m.
Three fire crews responded to the 911 call and found the vehicle about 100 feet down in a brush-covered ravine, Garner said.
The rescuers made their way down and got the elderly driver out of the car and into a Stokes rescue basket, then carried him up the ravine and turned him over to Hamilton County EMS. Garner said he was taken to a local hospital. The man's age and identity were not provided.
Battalion Chief Don Bowman praised the motorist who saw the crash and called 911.
If that had not happened, Bowman said, "that man probably would not have survived, because no one would have known that he was down there."
It was the second rescue in as many days for the Chattanooga Fire Department. On Thursday, firefighters retrieved a woman who fell off a bluff on the side of Raccoon Mountain.