Palmdale Man Dies During Rescue Attempt

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST —  A 62-year-old man whose car plunged 400 feet into a canyon suffered a heart attack and died as paramedics who rappelled down the cliff tried to save him.

Robert Bowsa of Palmdale was driving north Wednesday when he lost control of his car, drove off Angeles Forest Highway and rolled down the steep embankment, California Highway Patrol officers said. The cause of the crash was still undetermined.

At 6:45 Wednesday night, another motorist spotted the headlights of Bowsa’s car far down a slope off the road about 15 miles north of La Canada-Flintridge and called authorities.

Within 15 minutes, Los Angeles County firefighters were at the scene and rappelling down to the car. At the bottom of the cliff, they found Bowsa, who was alert and outside his car. Mark Whaling, a Fire Department spokesman, said Bowsa had been trying to claw his way back up to the road for about an hour before the rescuers arrived.

Paramedics, secured by ropes and pulleys, were attempting to pull Bowsa up to the road when he went into cardiac arrest.

“They were in very poor conditions--at best--to do any sort of CPR,” Whaling said.

Firefighters determined that it would take them an hour to hoist Bowsa out and conditions were such that a helicopter could not safely descend into the canyon. Working with defibrillators and drugs, paramedics tried to revive Bowsa on the hillside where he lay.

“They were in a lose-lose situation” and eventually they could do nothing except watch Bowsa die, Whaling said. “Even in an emergency, you may not be able to restart someone’s heart. Here, they are on the precarious side of a hill.”

Bowsa was pronounced dead at 8:50 p.m.