A motorist was rushed to hospital after his vehicle plunged down an embankment in remote Highland Perthshire.
The 44-year-old man was taken to Ninewells Hospital after his Mazda 4×4 careered 20ft down the slope after leaving the road at about 4.30am on Wednesday.
Emergency services were called to the smash on the A924 between Pitlochry and Kirkmichael to discover the man trapped in his stricken vehicle.
He might have lain there for anything up to an hour before rousing himself to raise the alarm. He was described as ”lucky” by firefighters.
Tayside Fire and Rescue station manager Scott Gibson said local crews and the heavy rescue unit from Perth, working in darkness, used cutting gear to free the man and then got him back up to the roadside on a backboard.
Mr Gibson said: ”It was dark and quite cold, and I think the vehicle had been there quite a while with him in it.
”The crew carried out a controlled extrication using a long board by doing a roof removal on the vehicle, and we managed to get him up the embankment.
”We had to put safety lines in place and carry out a controlled ascent using crew members to carry the long board up the embankment.
”The crews worked really well. I don’t think the injuries are life-threatening, but we were called as there were suspected spinal injuries.”
The man was then taken from the accident site at Kinnaird, north-east of Pitlochry, to Ninewells Hospital by ambulance.
No other details about the casualty were released.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash and no one else was injured.