05.08.2025 | 12:03 AM | IRVINE – A man was rescued from a ravine after being ejected in a high-speed rollover crash, early Thursday morning.
The incident began to unfold on Newport Coast Drive, south of Turtle Ridge Drive, around midnight when a blue Lexus SUV traveling northbound lost control.
The Lexus downed a light pole and two trees in the center divider before landing in southbound lanes, ejecting its driver and solo occupant into a ravine about 25-feet below.
Firefighters performed a low-angle rope rescue to extract the man from the ravine before rushing him to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The involvement of drugs or alcohol in the collision is being investigated.
Both directions of Newport Coast Drive between the SR-73 Freeway and Turtle Ridge Drive were closed while crews attended to the scene.
