Missing driver located after car plunges over cliff in Hollywood Hills crash

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- After a car slammed through a guardrail and careened over a cliff in the Hollywood Hills on Friday evening, the missing driver was found walking on a nearby road, authorities said.

The crash was reported shortly after 8:30 p.m. in the 9700 block of W. Blantyre Drive, near Mulholland Drive, where fire officials said the vehicle was discovered about 150 yards down a steep hillside.

Los Angeles police officers and firefighters said no patients were immediately located, and a search was launched that included support from air operations and K-9 units.

By 11 p.m., there was no sign of the person behind the wheel or any passengers as rescuers with flashlights scoured the hillsides, looking through the brush for anyone possibly thrown from the wreckage.

Officials said if the car, which had its airbag deployed and windows smashed, had tumbled any further, it would have landed in the pool of a nearby home.

"I saw the lights, so I went up to see what it was and called 911," said neighborhood resident Brendan Carroll. "We couldn't find anybody in it."

The uninjured male driver, who may have been trying to kill himself, was later found walking in the area, said a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department's West Traffic Division. The unidentified person was transported to a hospital.