Man Escapes Death in Truck’s Plunge Off ‘Ricochet Alley’ : Accident: Driver falls asleep at wheel on stretch of Ortega Highway that is notorious for its high incidence of crashes. Passerby spots wreckage 300 feet below road.

A man who fell asleep while driving to work was injured Wednesday morning when his pickup truck plunged 300 feet over the side of Ortega Highway.

A passerby found Paul Pinkerton Jr., 39, of Murrieta trapped in the wreckage about 7 a.m., two hours after the pickup truck went off the road and landed partially in San Juan Creek, California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Scord said.

Rescuers cut into the wreckage to free Pinkerton and airlifted him to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, said Kathleen Cha, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department.

Pinkerton suffered a concussion, broken rib and multiple cuts, hospital spokeswoman Wendy Harle said. But by Wednesday night he was listed in fair condition.

The part of the highway where Pinkerton’s truck went off the road--about 14 miles east of Interstate 5--is known among CHP officers as “Ricochet Alley.” It is the narrowest and curviest stretch of the 32-mile highway, with a sheer canyon wall on one side and a deep ravine on the other.

Scord said Pinkerton was westbound on the highway about 5 a.m. when his pickup truck slammed against the canyon wall on the south side of the road. It then ricocheted across the highway and plunged over an embankment, rolling several times down the steep ravine, Scord said. The truck came to a stop with its bed partially submerged in the creek.

“If that truck had had enough energy to roll one more time, he’d have drowned in the river because it looked pretty deep and he wouldn’t have had the strength to swim to safety,” Scord said. “He’s a pretty lucky man.”

A passerby called rescuers after seeing headlights down in the ravine. Pinkerton was found conscious but had a nosebleed and facial cuts, Scord said.

“His seat belt probably saved him,” Scord said. “He was just sitting there, waiting patiently, hoping that someone would eventually see him down there.

“He wasn’t groggy and was coherent. He knew what happened,” Scord said.

Stretching from Orange County to Lake Elsinore, Ortega Highway, formally known as California 74, shows no mercy to motorists and has a long history of serious accidents.

A Mission Viejo man was killed last December on the same stretch of highway where Wednesday’s crash occurred. Raymond Joseph Moell, 35, was on his way to a friend’s house when his truck went off the road. Caltrans workers later found his body, authorities said.

Last year, 87 accidents were reported on that portion of the highway in Orange County, CHP Officer Bruce Lian said. Two of them were fatal.

In 1991, there were 85 accidents, three of them fatal, Lian said.

The greatest number of fatalities on the highway in the last five years occurred in 1990, with four deaths, Lian said.

Three of those fatalities occurred on Oct. 10, 1990, when a pickup truck careened out of control and overturned, killing the three men riding in the back and injuring two passengers in the cab. The driver was the only one wearing a seat belt and the only one to escape injury, the Highway Patrol said.