A car carrying five people hit a pole, rolled over and plunged off a cliff along Angeles Crest Highway near Wrightwood just before 1:30 a.m. Friday, killing four occupants and injuring a fifth. Rescuers had to lower 40 feet of cable to reach the victims after the vehicle came to rest in a meadow area far below the roadway.
The crash was reported near State Route 2 and Flume Canyon Road, close to the Los Angeles–San Bernardino county line, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. The outlet reported that only one vehicle was involved and that details about what led up to the crash were not immediately available. The vehicle ultimately came to rest in the meadow below.
The condition of the fifth occupant, the crash's lone survivor, has not been detailed publicly. It also remains unclear whether speed, alcohol or mechanical failure played any role in the crash, and no further information about the victims' identities or ages has been released.
A Deadly Pattern Along the Same Mountain Corridor
This is not the first time this stretch of highway has claimed multiple lives in a single crash this year. Less than a month earlier, on August 5, a driver was killed and three passengers were injured after a vehicle veered off Angeles Crest Highway near La Cañada Flintridge and came to rest several hundred feet below the roadway, according to the Los Angeles Times. In that incident, a helicopter was requested but the airlift request was later canceled, a scene Hoodline covered in its report on four trapped after a cliffside plunge.
Angeles Crest Highway, also known as State Route 2, is a 66-mile two-lane mountain road that climbs from La Cañada Flintridge through the San Gabriel Mountains to an elevation of 7,903 feet at Dawson Saddle before descending toward Wrightwood, per Wikipedia. The corridor's sharp curves and steep drop-offs are severe enough that state regulations enforced by Caltrans bar commercial vehicles with three or more axles or those weighing over 4.5 tons from traveling the stretch between La Cañada Flintridge and Big Pines.
High-Profile Crashes Have Marked the Route Before
The highway drew national attention in December 2025 when Call of Duty co-creator Vince Zampella and his passenger died after his Ferrari struck a barrier and caught fire on the same road. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner formally ruled that crash accidental in April, with the office detailing smoke inhalation and blunt trauma in its findings, as Hoodline reported in its piece on Zampella's horrific final moments.
Fatal plunges are not new to this highway's history. In 2021, two missing 19-year-olds from Apple Valley were found dead in a wreck off Angeles Crest Highway, according to VVNG. The wreckage was located off the highway.
Rescue Teams Face Constant Demand on the Mountain Pass
The volunteer Montrose Search and Rescue Team, which operates under the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and specializes in high-angle cliff rescues along Angeles Crest, responded to 93 emergency callouts in just the first six months of 2025, according to the Crescenta Valley Weekly. Team members train specifically in over-the-side vehicle extrications, a skill set repeatedly tested by the highway's terrain.
Excessive speed is a factor in some Los Angeles County fatal crashes. Separate statewide crash data analyzed by Bana Law ranked Angeles Crest Highway ninth among California's deadliest corridors for motorcyclists and counted 78 fatal and serious-injury crashes, noting that high-performance sports cars and motorcyclists frequently travel the route on weekends.
Wildfire damage has added another layer of risk to the area around Wrightwood. The U.S. Forest Service issued an extended closure order through the end of 2025 across Bridge Fire burn areas in the Angeles National Forest surrounding the community, citing public safety hazards and the need for landscape recovery.
