A 19-year-old driver miraculously survived a dramatic plunge off a Nahant cliff yesterday after speeding away from a police officer who tried to stop him, cops say.

The nearly fatal incident began about 5 p.m., when a Nahant cop spotted the man’s car speeding along the causeway toward the town, police Chief Bob Dwyer said.

Although the officer initially tried to pull the man over, Dwyer said the pursuit was quickly called off due to safety concerns.

As officers scoured the area for any sign of the car, Dwyer said one cop noticed a missing section of a cabled guardrail lining a sharp curve overlooking a 30-foot cliff leading down to Forty Steps Beach. At the bottom of the cliff, officers found the vehicle on its roof, crushed like a tin can, with the driver still trapped inside, Dwyer said.

When Nahant firefighters, police and state troopers pulled the man from the wreckage, Dwyer said he was “talking and alert.” The man’s name was not released last night.

Firefighters rushed the man to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where he was listed in stable condition last night, police said.

Dwyer declined to say whether officers detected an odor of alcohol while pulling the man from the twisted wreckage.

Whether he was intoxicated, and the speed he was going prior to the crash, were under investigation last night.

“It’s dangerous,” Dwyer said of the curve leading up to the cliff. “It’s terrible. You don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

A state police accident reconstruction team remained at the scene last night as authorities were preparing to tow the vehicle back up the cliff.