MONTARA, Calif. (AP) — The driver of a car that fell off a cliff in Northern California, falling 250 feet, seriously injured two children and an adult, and was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse, announced the California Highway Police on Tuesday.
Dharmesh A. Patel of Pasadena will be held in the San Mateo County Jail when he is released from the hospital, the Highway Patrol said in a statement. It was not immediately clear whether Patel had an attorney.
“CHP investigators worked throughout the night interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence from the scene,” the highway patrol statement said. “Based on the evidence collected, investigators developed probable cause to believe this incident was an intentional act.”
Patel was in the car with another adult, a 4-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. It is unclear if they are all members of the same family.
Officials said it was a miracle that the four survived after the car fell off a notorious cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway near an area called Devil's Slide that's known for deadly wrecks.
The Tesla sedan fell more than 76 meters from the highway and hit a ledge. Coast Fire District/Cal Fire Battalion Chief Brian Pottenger said Monday that it appeared to flip over several times before landing on wheels and wedged into a cliff just a few feet from the waves.
Few survivors crashed along the "Devil's Slide," a steep, rocky and winding coast about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of San Francisco between Pacifica and Montara. The victim was initially listed as a critical condition on Monday, but all four were conscious and alert when rescuers arrived.
“We go there all the time for cars over the cliff and they never live. This was an absolute miracle,” Pottenger said Monday.
There were no guardrails where the car fell off the cliff, officials said.
Witnesses called 911 around 10:15 a.m. Monday, and crews installed a cable system on the highway to lower firefighters off the cliff, the battalion commander said. Meanwhile, other firefighters watching the sedan through binoculars suddenly noticed movement -- suggesting at least one person was still alive.
The incident evolved from a possible body recovery to a rescue operation that lasted hours and involved heavy rain, strong winds, slippery roads and rough seas. The door slammed into the cliff and became stuck, forcing firefighters to use what they called a "jaws of life" tool to cut the victim out of the car.
Crews pulled the children out of the stern window and placed them in rescue cages using a rope system to lift them up the cliff by hand. They were taken by ambulance to hospital with musculoskeletal injuries.
However, the adults were traumatized and had to be hauled up the cliff by helicopter. They were all taken to hospital afterwards, the battalion commander said.
In 2018, a woman, her wife and six adopted children deliberately drove an SUV off another Northern California cliff, investigators said. All were killed. The Mendocino County crash comes days after Washington state authorities launched an investigation following allegations that Jennifer Hart's child was neglected.
-cp24
-The Associated PressPublished Wednesday, January 4, 2023 7:44AM EST
Comments