SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. -- After searching for nearly seven hours, authorities located the body of a 48-year-old motorcyclist who called for help after his bike fell off a cliff in Sonoma County, a California Highway Patrol officer said.
The CHP received a call from the Santa Rosa man at 3:09 p.m. during which he estimated he was about 15 minutes south of Fort Ross State Historic Park, CHP Officer Peter Van Eckhardt said. The driver was able to use his cell phone to call for help but was unable to give his location, other than somewhere on state Highway 1. The dispatcher contacted the man's cell phone provider, AT&T, to try to determine his location, and AT&T provided the CHP with a number of positions that Van Eckhardt said were searched from the air using a helicopter and airplane, which eventually had to turn around due to darkness.
Units from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office also searched the area on the ground but failed to locate the man. A command post was set up at the fire station in Bodega Bay and a search and rescue team was deployed. The motorcycle was located at about 9:15 p.m. in rough terrain, and the driver was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the CHP, the motorcyclist was traveling southbound on Highway 1 north of Meyers Grade Road when he veered off the roadway on his Harley Davidson motorcycle in a slight curve. The motorcycle crossed the dirt shoulder and dropped off a steep cliff, with the driver coming to rest several hundred feet down the steep hillside. The bike traveled an additional several hundred feet, according to the CHP, almost reaching the ocean beach. The man's identity had not yet been released by the Sonoma County coroner's office.
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Topic: Cell Phone Call For Help Answered Too Late (Read 1379 times)