As many as four people were trapped late Wednesday night after a car went off the side of Angeles Crest Highway in La Cañada Flintridge and ended up hundreds of feet below the roadway. The crash happened around 10:10 p.m. near Mile Marker 26-50, and search and rescue teams worked through the night to reach everyone inside the vehicle.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department sent search and rescue teams to the scene after the car veered off the highway for unknown reasons, according to CBS Los Angeles. The hospitalization and injury status of the passengers was unclear as crews worked to free them from the wreckage. A helicopter was initially requested to airlift victims to safety and was en route around 11 p.m., though that airlift request was later canceled, per the fire department's account relayed to the station.
Both Directions of the Highway Shut Down
Both sides of Angeles Crest Highway were closed during the extrication operation, with traffic redirected to Angeles Forest Highway until emergency crews cleared the scene. That detour route, also known as County Route N3, is the primary link connecting Antelope Valley commuters to Interstate 210 in the San Gabriel Valley whenever State Route 2 is shut down, and it is maintained by Los Angeles County Public Works rather than Caltrans, which oversees the mountain highway itself, according to background compiled by Wikipedia.
The stretch of highway where the car went over the side sits within a 66-mile mountain corridor that climbs from Foothill Boulevard in La Cañada Flintridge to 7,901 feet at Dawson Saddle, marked by steep canyon drops, hairpin curves and limited cell service. Those conditions are exactly what make vehicle-over-the-side rescues so hazardous, and why coordinated extrications along this stretch typically require LA County Fire, CHP's Altadena station and the volunteer Montrose Search and Rescue Team working together.
A Highway With a History of Deadly Crashes
This is not the first time a vehicle has gone hundreds of feet down the mountainside along this same corridor. In April 2024, LA County firefighters and the Montrose Search and Rescue Team extracted a driver whose car had plunged more than 500 feet down a cliff near Mile Marker 32 on Angeles Crest Highway, as reported by FOX 11. Montrose Search and Rescue, an all-volunteer detail operating under the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Crescenta Valley Station, responded to 93 emergency callouts in just the first six months of 2025 alone, per the Crescenta Valley Weekly.
The highway's danger has drawn wider attention in recent months. Hoodline previously covered the December 2025 crash that killed Call of Duty co-creator Vince Zampella after his Ferrari 296 GTS veered off the road near Mile Marker 62 and burst into flames, and later detailed the coroner's findings on that crash. A statewide motorcycle crash analysis published by Bana Law in 2025 ranked Angeles Crest Highway ninth among California's deadliest corridors for motorcyclists, tallying 78 fatal and serious-injury crashes.
What Remains Unknown
As of early Thursday, the exact cause of Wednesday night's crash had not been determined, and it remained unclear whether speed, mechanical failure or road conditions caused the car to leave the highway. The condition and identities of those trapped inside also had not been confirmed. The story was still developing as rescue crews continued working to reach everyone inside the vehicle.
