A man whose car plunged off a mountain road survived with broken bones for nearly a week by eating bugs and leaves, according to friends, authorities and news reports. Not far from him was a dead man in another vehicle that might have been involved in the original accident, authorities said.

And it wasn't rescuers who found the survivor. It was members of his own family who were on a mission to find him and apparently retraced his route by looking at his last debit card purchase.

According to Los Angeles County Fire's Mark Savage they discovered 67-year-old David Lavau yesterday in the in the 38000 block of Lake Hughes Road in Lake Hughes, which is way up in northern L.A. County.

Lavau was found at the bottom of a ravine, which apparently provided him with creek water, according to reports. Another vehicle plunged down the same ravine and contained a dead body nearby, although it's not clear that situation was related to Lavau's own accident.


View Larger Map

Lisa Lavau told KCAL9 News this is how she found her dad:

We stopped at every ravine, and looked over every hill and then my brother got out of the car and we kept screaming and the next thing we heard Dad saying, `help, help,' and there he was.

Family members said he had set up a makeshift camp near the wreckage.

Lavau was being treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital and is glad to be alive.

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.