A woman driving a Nissan Pathfinder SUV on the coast in Santa Cruz went over the bluff into Monterey Bay on Monday morning.
Witnesses said two good Samaritans who witnessed the crash quickly shed most of their clothing and worked their way down the cliff and into the water to help rescue the driver before Santa Cruz Fire Department swimmers met them with surfboards in the water and swam out to a waiting Harbor Patrol boat.
The driver — who initially crashed into a Honda sedan traveling east on West Cliff Drive before 11:30 a.m. — was transported for medical care, according to Santa Cruz Police Department spokesperson Katie Lee. The driver of the sedan, who said she had come to a stop at the intersection of Swift Street and West Cliff Drive and then drove forward before the SUV driver, traveling on Swift Street, struck her front end, remained at the scene and was not transported for medical care.
A lifeguard speeds to Monday’s scene on a personal water craft as Santa Cruz firefighters scour the water to make sure there were no other people in need of help. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
The sedan driver, a Santa Cruz resident who asked not to be identified, was in the car with her small dog after her daily visit to Natural Bridges State Park. The SUV came rapidly toward her, and the crash pushed her vehicle toward the ice plant-covered cliff’s edge before she knew what was happening, the woman said.
Both the sedan driver and other witnesses said the SUV driver appeared to have crashed into the sedan before backing up and heading back toward and over the cliff.
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Pedestrian Heidi Lewin and a friend had parked on Swift Street and witnessed the crash, she said.
“We literally crossed the crosswalk, and three seconds later — like 6 feet away — is when the crash happened right behind us,” Lewin said. “We were on our way to the lighthouse, and along came this car, busting through. We didn’t even see it behind us.”
Lewin and her friend immediately turned back to see if they could assist those involved with the initial crash when they said they saw the SUV backing up and driving forward. The SUV flipped twice before landing on its roof along the shoreline, she said. The driver emerged from the SUV and began swimming out into the bay, Lewin said.