10-Hour Ordeal for Driver : Rescue: Police in a helicopter spot a man whose car plunged down a ravine in fog.

As a Los Angeles County Disaster Communications specialist, Edward Watts makes his living preparing for emergencies.

But he said his expertise failed to prepare him for the 10-hour ordeal that began Thursday morning when his truck went out of control on a fogged-in, unpaved stretch of Mulholland Drive in Encino and plunged and rolled 100 yards down a steep ravine, throwing him from the cab. He suffered a broken hip and deep cuts on his head and arms.

The two ham radios that he keeps in his truck for major disasters were damaged in the crash. Even the two emergency drinking water canisters he carries turned out to be empty.

Finally, after hours of fruitless shouts for help, a Los Angeles police helicopter that happened to be passing over the area looking for stolen cars sighted Watts about 1:30 p.m. as he waved an orange towel from the crumpled cab of his truck, authorities said.

The helicopter crew radioed for a police car and a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter, which hoisted him aboard after firefighters on the ground placed him on a stretcher.

The 33-year-old West Los Angeles resident was in serious but stable condition Thursday night at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, hospital officials said.

“I definitely thought I was going to die down there,” a shaken but grateful Watts said from his hospital bed. “I was there screaming for help. I picked a very bad place to go over. There were no homes below me and not a single car passed by” on the isolated stretch of road in the 16900 block of Mulholland.

Watts said he was on the road to test the newly repaired rear axle of his truck. He said he also frequently goes to the area because the altitude provides better radio reception, which he uses to chat with other ham operators.

Police said Watts was traveling at an unsafe speed--about 35 m.p.h.--when his truck skidded sideways over the edge of the road in thick fog.

“It was foggy out there and the turns came up real fast, especially with inadequate lighting,” Watts said.

The truck rolled several times and tumbled over him after throwing him out and into its path, authorities said. It came to rest on top of a rusty Honda car that apparently suffered the same fate several years ago, Los Angeles Police Officer James Van Riper said.

“The chances were just as good that he would have gotten killed,” said Fire Capt. Robert Hogan, one of the rescuing firefighters. “He might have just lain down there and died and we wouldn’t have found him till someone spotted the car.”

Officer Randy Champe, the police helicopter observer who spotted Watts, said the wreckage caught his eye because he had not seen it the day before.

“I saw an arm sticking out of the window, waving a T-shirt,” he said. “Especially in that wreck, I didn’t think anybody would make it out of there alive. That truck was just totaled.” Watts said he tried to climb the 45-degree slope to the road but couldn’t make it because his hip was broken. He said he tried in vain to send a Morse code distress signal through the microphone plug of one of the ham radios.

He also tried with no luck to beckon the pilots of a small plane and a helicopter that flew over at low altitude.

When Champe finally sighted him and shouted through a public address system to “Hang on, buddy--the Fire Department is on its way,” he said he gave a thumbs-up sign, thankful that his ordeal would soon be over.

Watts said the experience will serve him well the next time he assists emergency victims on his job.

“I have more insight and probably more compassion,” he said. “And I’m going to get better emergency equipment in my car. And no more empty canteens.”