car cliff uk
© UnknownThe arrows show where the car veered off the cliff and landed.
A man who drove his car off an 80ft cliff near Brighton has walked away without any significant injuries.

The driver lost control of his vehicle on the A259 just after midnight on Sunday morning.

He survived the drop because the car "miraculously" managed to clear the promenade beneath the cliff and land on water.

Some 22 emergency workers attended only to find the driver had made his way to nearby rocks without any serious injuries

cliff drive 2
© UnknownThe incident occurred in Roedean near Brighton, East Sussex.
Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp tweeted after the incident: "Incredibly a man escaped without serious injury after his car went over the cliff near Roedean just after midnight and ended up in the sea."

Emergency crews used ladders and ropes to rescue the man.

"A second ladder was installed to use as a slipway and the casualty was secured into Newhaven Coastguard's rescue stretcher and then using some of our cliff rescue equipment we were able to slide the stretcher up the ladders," a Newhaven Coastguard spokesman said.

"With nine members of various agencies on the three ropes and two of the Newhaven team at the top of the ladder we were able to bring the casualty up from the beach where they were handed into the care of paramedics.

cliff car 3
© UnknownThe car was a wreck but its driver was relatively unharmed.
"All the time the recovery operation was ongoing a member of the Brighton lifeboat crew who had swum ashore in a dry suit was inspecting the vehicle to check for any secondary casualties."

Brighton and Newhaven lifeboat crews made a brief sea search and two coastguard teams searched the beach in case anyone else was in the water.