Fatal cliff crash in California may have been intentional, police say
SAN FRANCISCO — California Highway Patrol officials say preliminary evidence shows the cliff crash that killed a Washington state family may have been intentional.
Capt. Greg Baarts with the CHP Northern Division says information pulled from the SUV’s software shows the vehicle was stopped at the highway pullout before it accelerated straight off the cliff.
Baarts says the electronic information combined with the lack of skid marks led officials to believe it was intentional.
A Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office spokesman says authorities believe at least one felony was committed but declined to specify.
Five members of the Hart family were found dead. Searchers are looking for three more children believed to have been in the vehicle when it went over a scenic coastal overlook and landed on rocks in the Pacific Ocean below.
