4 survive in ‘miracle’ after Tesla plunges off California cliff near area known as Devil’s Slide

MONTARA, Calif. — A 4-year-old woman, a 9-year-old boy and two adults survived Monday after their automobile plunged off a Northern California cliff alongside the Pacific Coast Freeway close to an space generally known as Satan’s Slide that is recognized for deadly wrecks, officers stated.

The Tesla sedan plummeted greater than 250 toes from the freeway and crashed right into a rocky outcropping. It seems to have flipped a couple of occasions earlier than touchdown on its wheels, wedged towards the cliff simply toes from the surf, in response to Brian Pottenger, a battalion chief forCoastside Fireplace Safety District/Cal Fireplace.

Crashes alongside Satan’s Slide, a steep, rocky and winding coastal space about 15 miles south of San Francisco that is between Pacifica and Montara, not often finish with survivors. On Monday, the victims have been initially listed in important situation however all 4 have been aware and alert when rescuers arrived.

“We go there on a regular basis for automobiles over the cliff they usually by no means reside. This was an absolute miracle,” Pottenger stated.

The California Freeway Patrol doesn’t imagine, based mostly on its preliminary investigation, that the Tesla was working in Autopilot or Full Self-Driving mode on the time, Officer Mark Andrews stated.

The highway’s situations have been additionally not believed to be an element within the crash. There was no guardrail on the spot the place the sedan went off the cliff.

“The automobile traveled off the principle portion of the roadway. For what motive, we do not know,” Andrews stated.

Witnesses known as 911 round 10:15 a.m. and the crews arrange rope system from the freeway to decrease firefighters down the cliff, the battalion chief stated. On the identical time, different firefighters watching the sedan via binoculars out of the blue observed motion – an indication that at the least one particular person was nonetheless alive.

“Each one in all us was shocked once we noticed motion out of the entrance windshield,” Pottenger stated.

The incident turned from what had been seemingly a restoration of our bodies to a rescue operation that took a number of hours amid fixed rain, heavy winds, slick roads and crashing waves. The doorways have been smashed towards the cliff and jammed shut, so firefighters have been pressured to chop the victims out of the automobile utilizing the so-called “jaws of life” instruments.

Crews pulled the children out of the again window and introduced them up the cliff by hand in a rescue basket utilizing the rope system. They have been rushed to the hospital by ambulance with musculoskeletal accidents.

“They have been extra scared than they have been damage,” Pottenger stated.

The adults had traumatic accidents, nevertheless, and needed to be hoisted up the cliff by a helicopter. They have been then each flown to the hospital, the battalion chief stated. It was not instantly clear whether or not the 4 occupants have been members of the identical household.

Officers are investigating what precipitated the Tesla to go off the freeway in that spot.

“I do not even like driving it,” Pottenger stated. “It is positively a treacherous stretch of California.”