A car plunged off a cliff on California’s famous Highway 1, killing all three people inside. The incident occurred just after 11 a.m. on Friday, according to a California Highway Patrol news release.
The grey two-door sedan fell approximately 300 to 400 feet down an embankment near Devil’s Slide, an area known for its sharp turns and steep seaside cliffs about 15 miles south of San Francisco. Photos posted by KTVU-TV show the car upside down but still visible in the water below.
Rescuers reached the car on Friday, recovering two bodies, while a third body was recovered on Saturday after high tide created “incredibly dangerous” conditions, the highway patrol said. The victims were identified as 36-year-old Brylyn Aroma of Fort Riley, Kansas, and two San Francisco residents, 29-year-old Mohammad Noory and 28-year-old Angelica Gacho.
The crash remains under investigation, and the car has been removed from the water by a tow truck. Authorities initially closed the highway for one-way traffic on the south side of Devil’s Slide around 2:45 p.m. on Friday and later closed it in both directions. The lanes reopened around 6:15 p.m. that same day.
Highway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), is a scenic yet perilous route that winds along California’s cliffsides. It is popular among tourists and locals traveling to destinations such as Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Monterey, San Francisco, and Mendocino, extending up to the Oregon border.
In January 2023, a California doctor named Dharmesh Patel was charged with three counts of attempted murder after being accused of intentionally driving himself and his family off Devil’s Slide. A judge granted him a mental health diversion, allowing him to avoid jail time for the crash that injured his wife and children, aged 4 and 7 at the time.
Brian Pottenger, a battalion chief with Cal Fire, noted the rarity of survival in crashes along Devil’s Slide. “We go there all the time for cars over the cliff and they never live,” he said. “This was an absolute miracle.”