{"id":46412,"date":"2026-08-15T09:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46412"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:46:21","slug":"uc-santa-cruz-student-dies-after-vehicle-plunges-off-cliff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46412","title":{"rendered":"UC Santa Cruz student dies after vehicle plunges off cliff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/7e109a0\/2147483647\/strip\/false\/crop\/2048x1365+0+0\/resize\/1500x1000!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F76%2F16%2F91a337de458a8feeb3a56426b10b%2Fcar-cliff.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>A UC Santa Cruz student died after the vehicle she was driving  veered off a road near the university, dropped off a seaside cliff and plunged into the Pacific, according to officials. <\/p>\n<p>A second person was able to escape from the submerged  car, but the woman who died became trapped, the Santa Cruz Fire Department said. <\/p>\n<p>Rescue teams responded to the crash just before 1 a.m. Thursday and were able to pull the trapped woman from inside the  car, but lifesaving measures were unsuccessful, the fire department said <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SantaCruzFire\/posts\/pfbid0yPMLVz9yEpVRv5diQBuhXh94jg8ZpiVmPm8gYW52sK3Xu5XYNdh3sJQe1sKqsz8Ql\" target=\"_blank\">on Facebook<\/a>. She was  pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. <\/p>\n<p>The passenger who survived was a man, according to Santa Cruz Police spokesperson Katie Lee. He  suffered  only minor injuries, officials said. <\/p>\n<p>First responders worked in the dark of night on the rescue, sending at least five  swimmers into the ocean to pull the woman from the car and confirm there were no other trapped occupants. The car  flipped during the crash, leaving most of it  upside down and underwater, according to a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1511688624336025&amp;set=pcb.1511699627668258\" target=\"_blank\">photo shared from the scene<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The car drove off a cliff on West Cliff Drive near Steamer Lane, a popular spot for local surfers. The location is about two  miles from UC Santa Cruz\u2019s campus. <\/p>\n<p>Officials didn\u2019t immediately identify the student but confirmed she had been enrolled at the university. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were heartbroken to learn that the victim was a UC Santa Cruz student,\u201d school spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason wrote in a statement. \u201cOur deepest condolences go out to the student\u2019s family and friends during this difficult time. We are providing support resources to those in our community affected by this tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crash remains under investigation by police. A spokesperson  said officers still are working to determine the circumstances that led to the crash. She declined to release the names of the victims. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A UC Santa Cruz student died after the vehicle she was driving veered off a road near the university, dropped off a seaside cliff and plunged into the Pacific, according to officials. A second person was able to escape from the submerged car, but the woman who died became trapped, the Santa Cruz Fire Department&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/640e6a4\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2048x1075+0+145\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F76%2F16%2F91a337de458a8feeb3a56426b10b%2Fcar-cliff.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}