Woman in hospital after car plunges off Chapman's Peak

A woman is being treated in hospital for multiple injuries after her car veered off Chapman's Peak Drive in Cape Town, plunged down the mountain and caught alight on Thursday.

Wilderness Search and Rescue spokesperson Johan Marais said details of the accident are not clear, “but it appears that her vehicle went over the edge and burst into flames and set the surrounding vegetation on fire”.

More than 50 emergency services personnel and volunteers from various organisations, including Working on Fire, were called in to assist with the rescue of the woman, who was seriously injured.

While helicopters battled the blaze around the wreck to protect the woman from the fire, paramedics stabilised her before bringing her up from the mountain slopes to the road.

“When the helicopters were able to bring the fire under control, firefighters were deployed to attend to flare-ups,” said Marais.

“Wilderness Search and Rescue volunteers brought a stretcher down the slope, helped secure the patient and brought her up to the road using a rope system. An ambulance took her to hospital where she was admitted with multiple and severe injuries.”

The vehicle was burnt out.

ER24 said the woman is 25 years old.

“It is understood that the woman’s vehicle left the edge of Chapman’s Peak and had rolled before coming to a stop about 100 metres down the mountain,” the paramedic service said.

TimesLIVE