Driver walks away with minor injuries after his car goes over 80ft cliff onto rocks below and tells firefighters: 'I'd had a Red Bull, it made me fly!'

Car plunged down cliffs near Roedean, Sussex, just after midnight

The vehicle cleared concrete promenade below and landed next to the sea

Man who was driving was able to climb out of wreckage and wait for help

He was in such good spirits afterwards that he joked about Red Bull

The man told a rescuer that the energy drink had 'made him fly'



A man whose car plunged 80ft from a cliff and landed in the sea has escaped practically unharmed - and joked straight afterwards that a Red Bull he drank had made him 'fly'.

The driver, who has not been named, careered off of the A259 in Sussex. His Ford Focus was moving fast enough that it cleared the concrete promenade at the base of the cliffs and landed in the sands.

Remarkably, he suffered only minor injuries from the accident, which took place just after midnight.

Above: Arrow shows path of the vehicle as it plunges on to the beach - and inset the car

Scale: The car flew off of the cliffs, around Roedean, Sussex, in the top left of the picture above, and landed in the sand to the bottom right

Plunge: The car can be seen in the bottom-right corner of the picture above, taken from the clifftop near where the car left the road

Response: Emergency services investigate the area around the car after its crash

Smashed: The back and front of the car was badly damaged by the landing - which nonetheless did no great harm to the passenger

After the landing the man was able to walk from his car back to near the base of the cliff near Roedean, near Brighton, and meet emergency services.

And he was in such good spirits that he was able to joke about his terrifying ordeal - saying that he'd taken off as a result of a Red Bull energy drink he'd had earlier that night.

A member of the fire service who was involved in the initial response said: 'He just had a Red Bull - and it was that. That was making him fly.'



The man was later lifted up the cliff-face with ladders and a stretcher and taken to a waiting ambulance.



A Newhaven Coastguard spokesman said: 'The casualty was secured into Newhaven Coastguards rescue stretcher and then using some of our cliff rescue equipment we were able to slide the stretcher up the ladders.



'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.

Crumpled: The driver was able to clamber from the wreckage and reach the bottom of the cliff to wait for help

Response: Police officers were at the scene of the crash just after midnight

Accident: A police investigator can be seen at the point where the car left the road, while tyre tracks can be seen leading up to it

'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.'

The wreckage of the vehicle, which smashed and crumpled dramatically on impact, was lifted off of the beach this morning and transported away.

Brighton and Newhaven lifeboat crews also made a brief sea search in opposite directions while two coastguard teams searched the beach a few hundred metres each side of the car in case anyone else was in the water.

Chief Superintendent Nev Kemp, the commander of Bright and Hove's police 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.'

Clean-up: The remains of the car were dragged across the sands and removed from the beach this morning

Lifted: The car was plucked from the beach and taken away on a flat-bed truck

Removal: The wrecked car was being taken away from the beach this morning