FREMONT -- Using high-tech satellite tracking equipment, rescue workers located an overdue SBC lineman and his wrecked truck early Wednesday deep in a remote ravine in the Bay Area's rural Mission Peak Regional Park.

The unidentified driver was taken from the vehicle, airlifted to a local hospital, underwent emergency surgery for his injuries and was in ICU.

His wife told KTVU when asked of his condition at Eden Hospital in Castro Valley that "he is surviving."

Fremont Battalion Chief Matt Loughran-Smith said the 11-hour drama began when the driver failed to return to work at the end of his day.

"This is the last known driver's stop at the end of his day," Loughran-Smith said of the rugged rural area. "He did not report back in at the end of his day. Upon not reporting back in, they (SBC dispatch center) traced him using the GPS locator in his truck to this area."

CHP officers discovered that the man's truck had left the roadway, plunged 150 feet down a ravine and was stopped from falling further by crashing into a grove of trees. He had apparently gone off the road around 3 p.m. and was finally removed at 2 a.m.

The driver was trapped under the boom on his truck and was extricated out of the vehicle by Fremont firefighters and rescuers from the California Department of Forestry.

Loughran-Smith said without the tracking system the driver could have died.

"He had no food or water for 12 hours," he said. "Dehydration becomes a problem. It can be a bigger problem than his actual injuries."

Loughran-Smith said the driver suffered a leg injury and was complaining of chest and back pain.