Victoria E. Freile, and Sarah Taddeo

Democrat and Chronicle

A man was rescued from a vehicle that plunged about 175 feet into the Genesee River gorge near Maplewood Park in Rochester Tuesday morning.

The driver, who was not identified, survived the fall, according to the Rochester Fire Department.

The vehicle went over an embankment at Maplewood Drive and Seneca Parkway around 11:15 a.m., according to a 911 caller, another driver, who witnessed the incident, said Lt. Dana Cielinski of the Rochester Fire Department.

Rochester Fire Department officials at the scene said the man was driving east on Seneca Parkway and missed a curve in the road where the road turns into Maplewood Drive. The vehicle went off the road at the curve, through a fence and into the gorge.

Tire tracks could be seen imprinted in the snow between the road and the fence and embankment.

Database: Monthly snowfall totals in Rochester since 1940

Rochester firefighters water rescue and ropes rescue units were called to the scene and lowered a firefighter into the gorge. There, the vehicle was overturned onto the driver's side and the driver had already exited the vehicle, she said.

The driver was alone in the vehicle and was alive and walking and taken to an area hospital for evaluation, Cieslinski said. The extent of the driver's injuries were not immediately known.

Cieslinski said it took 23 minutes for firefighter to reach the driver and another 15 minutes to clear everyone from the water in snowy conditions.

Rochester police and firefighters continue to investigate the incident.

VFREILE@Gannett.com

STADDEO@Gannett.com

COMPLETE STORM COVERAGE

►Rochester area braces for another big storm

►Winter Storm Stella slams East Coast

►Latest traffic conditions

►6 deaths blamed on windstorm

►Check local flight arrivals and departures

►Coping with storm stress

►A brief history of March snowstorms

►Why it's called heart-attack snow

►Latest forecast

►Monthly snowfall totals in Rochester area

►Rochester weather almanac

►Windstorm turns Webster homes into ice palaces

►Photos from the Blizzard of 1993