SANTA CLARITA : Man Leaps to Safety as Car Washes Away

A car was swept down a rain-swollen creek in Santa Clarita on Tuesday but the driver escaped by climbing onto the car’s roof and jumping to shore, Los Angeles County firefighters said.

A Volvo driven by Peter Matzdorff of Hollywood was washed away in Placerita Creek, just southeast of where a woman was plucked to safety last week by a county firefighter dangling from a firetruck’s extended ladder.

Capt. Jim Jordan said Matzdorff was trying to ford the creek at Quigley Canyon Road about noon when his car was carried away by the force of the current and washed about 200 feet down the creek. Matzdorff climbed out the driver’s side window onto the roof and from there jumped to shore, Jordan said.

“This guy wanted to go back to his car to get something out of it,” Jordan said. “We told him that his Volvo just got pushed 200 feet down the creek and asked him what he thought it would do to him?”

Jordan said signs are posted just off the road, warning motorists not to attempt to cross the thoroughfare if reflectors on the road’s surface are not visible, a signal that the water is too deep to cross.