By Mark Gomez
San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A 28-year-old Campbell woman who spent the night at the bottom of a 500-foot ravine after veering off Mount Hamilton Road was rescued Tuesday morning and flown to a hospital to be treated for her injuries.
Officers from multiple law enforcement agencies looked for the woman across the Santa Clara Valley on Monday, from the top of the Highway 17 summit to Campbell to downtown San Jose but were unable to find her despite information from the OnStar system in her 2012 Chevy Cruze and her cellphone provider.
A Campbell police officer and the woman’s family used an iPad to pinpoint where her iPhone was located. She was found early Tuesday morning, face down outside her car and at the bottom of a steep ravine off the road.
When the woman placed aboard a Coast Guard helicopter at about 9 a.m. Tuesday. CHP Officer Ross Lee said she was able to speak but was “fuzzy” about what happened.
Lee lauded “a great joint effort” by a number of a number of law enforcement agencies to find and rescue the woman.
Apple got an assist on the rescue. For some reason, the company couldn’t explain Tuesday, OnStar did not.
The General Motors’ OnStar system and Apple’s Find My iPhone service determine users’ location in different ways.
Apple has a database of the locations of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell phone towers. When an iPhone is trying to determine its location, it will look for nearby hot spots and cell towers as well as try to connect with the GPS satellite system.
By contrast, OnStar’s system gets location information solely through its GPS antenna, said OnStar spokesman Stuart Fowle. A Chevrolet Cruze connects to the GPS system through the same roof-mounted antenna that allows it to tune in FM radio and SiriusXM satellite radio, he said.
Many smartphone apps that provide navigation information keep track of users’ locations over time. But Fowle said that OnStar doesn’t do that. It only keeps track of users locations at discreet moments in time, such as when an accident happens or when they call in to get driving directions from a particular place.
OnStar service handles about 4,200 automated crash response calls a month, Fowle said. But over the years, there’s only been a “small handful of incidences” that GM has had to investigate, he said. Fowle didn’t know exactly how many such incidents had occurred.
“We’ve had this sort of unusual incident in the past,” he said. “But it’s rare.” Fowle said GM doesn’t know why OnStar misidentified the location of the accident.
“I really can’t theorize,” he said. “This is so fresh. We haven’t had a chance to look at it.” Seven agencies were involved in the search and rescue efforts, including the U.S. Coast Guard.
The white Chevy Cruze went off the roadway Monday between 1:30-3 p.m. Monday, according to Lee.
Campbell police were the first agency to become involved after receiving information from OnStar, the navigation/security system, called at 2:10 p.m. that there was a possible rollover crash near Highway 17 and Camden Avenue, according to Campbell police Capt. Gary Berg. Officers spent two hours searching the area, including the percolation ponds. The CHP also searched Highway 17 to Summit Road, Berg said.
But they could not find the car.
“We searched a pretty big area,” Berg said. “We were confident the vehicle wasn’t in that area.” After two hours, the woman’s cellphone provider said the phone was within a seven-mile radius of downtown San Jose, Berg said. Campbell notified San Jose police, who searched the downtown area, but also could not find any sign of the car.
Campbell police issued a “be on the lookout” with the vehicle description to all law enforcement agencies in Santa Clara County.
At 3 a.m. Tuesday, the woman’s family contacted Campbell police to report her missing, Berg said.
“The family was extremely concerned about her,” Berg said. “At that point it raised our concern it was something more than on On-Star issue.” Officer Dave Cameron went to the family’s home and asked if the woman has a iPhone. Cameron then helped the family use the woman’s iPad to use the Find My iPhone, which gave them a location near Mount Hamilton. Berg said Cameron guessed the woman’s password — on the third or fourth try — to unlock the iPad and the Find My Phone app.
Campbell police then contacted the CHP and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office at about 4 a.m. with the new information, including a screen shot of where the iPhone was located. It was “dead on,” Berg said.
The woman’s vehicle was spotted by a deputy at about 5:30 a.m., according to Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup of the sheriff’s office. The woman was found by CHP officers face down in the ravine; she had been ejected from the Cruze.
During the ordeal the woman was not able to use her cellphone, the CHP’s Lee said.
The San Jose Fire Department’s urban search and rescue task force also responded to Mount Hamilton Road and sent firefighters down the embankment to provide medical aid and stabilize the woman, fire Capt. Brad McGibben said. The woman suffered “moderate to severe” injuries to her lower extremities and abdomen, McGibben said.
The steep ravine and heavy brush made reaching the woman a challenge, McGibben said.
Winds were also a challenge, and the Coast Guard helicopter pilot wasn’t sure he could hoist the woman directly onto the helicopter. San Jose firefighters had a plan in place to use ropes to pull her up the ravine, but the pilot eventually hoisted the woman and took her to a hospital.
The cause of the crash is being investigated by the CHP. The CHP does not believe alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash.
“It was lot of coordination with local agencies; not only yesterday but this morning as we figured out the location,” Berg said. “It was a great collaborative effort.”
Copyright 2014 the San Jose Mercury News