‘Absolute Miracle’ – Firefighter Stunned As California Family Survives Dramatic Crash
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“The car plunged hundreds of feet down the cliff and landed on the beach” but “all four patients were successfully rescued,” the local fire department wrote in a post uploaded to social media.
All four passengers survived after their car flew off a cliff and plunged nearly 300 feet while driving along a treacherous stretch of California’s Pacific Coast Highway.
Two adults were critically injured after their Tesla sedan flipped repeatedly after being driven off the road, according to Brian Pottinger, the battalion chief of CAL Fire’s San Mateo - Santa Cruz Unit. The two children in the vehicle, aged 4 and 9 years old, reportedly suffered less serious injuries.
The California Highway Patrol now says the incident was likely an intentional act. The driver, Dharmesh A. Patel, of Pasadena, is reportedly currently being treated for his injuries but will be booked into San Mateo County Jail upon his release on charges of attempted murder and child abuse.
A preliminary investigation indicates the electric vehicle was not in ‘self-driving’ mode at the time of the wreck.
“We go there all the time for cars over the cliff and they never live,” Pottinger reportedly said. “This was an absolute miracle.”
This morning, a vehicle with 2 adults and 2 minors went over cliff at Devil's Slide in @sanmateoco. Witnesses saw the accident and called 911. The car plunged hundreds of feet down the cliff and landed on the beach. All four patients were successfully rescued. Watch the video! pic.twitter.com/HUM2SJ56Oy
— CAL FIRE CZU (@CALFIRECZU) January 3, 2023
In a video by the department’s Twitter page, Pottinger detailed his unit’s response when they arrived at the scene of the crash.
While coming up with a plan “to lower rescuers down to the vehicle to get eyes and assess” the situation, “we were able to notice movement in the front seat through the windshield with binoculars,” Pottinger recounted.
“At that point we did not know how many people were in the vehicle,” the battalion noted, but “we knew that we had at least one person that was alive.”
That’s when Pottinger says “several helicopters were ordered to assist us with hoisting the patients from down below” in an effort to “expedite the rescue.”
But, with the choppers facing an “extended ETA,” emergency crews elected to carry out the rescue of the minors – who had only “moderate injuries” – “prior to the arrival of the helicopters.”
“We were actually very shocked when we found survivable victims in the vehicle,” Pottinger explained. “So that actually was a hopeful moment for us.”
The incident took place along Devil's Slide, a dangerous portion of California's Highway 1 that hugs the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean along the coast south of San Francisco. The narrow, winding road is known for its rugged terrain and gorgeous coastal views.
According to a report on Devil’s Slide by the San Francisco Chronicle, “a review of news reports from 1990 through 2021 indicates at least 10 rescues and 30 deaths — including six people presumed dead after a minivan drove off the cliff in 1992 — or roughly one fatality per year.”
