A vehicle flew off Interstate 15 and plunged roughly 200 feet down a cliff in the Cajon Pass early Sunday morning, killing one person in a crash that remains largely unexplained hours later. California Highway Patrol incident logs recorded the initial report near Applewhite Road and Keenbrook Road at approximately 5:53 a.m., after a panicked caller told dispatchers a vehicle had gone off the freeway.
The reporting party was screaming and unable to tell dispatchers which vehicle had gone over or how it ended up at the bottom of the embankment, according to CHP logs cited by VVNG. A responding CHP unit located the vehicle approximately 200 feet down the cliff at around 6:39 a.m., and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was contacted at 7:25 a.m. to request the coroner. Dispatch information did not immediately identify the person who died, say how many people were in the vehicle, or explain what led to the crash, and additional details are pending an official update from CHP's Inland Division.
A Mountain Corridor With a Deadly Track Record
The stretch of freeway where the car went over is no stranger to tragedy. Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County was identified as the deadliest freeway stretch in the entire country, with 80 fatal crashes recorded between 2020 and 2022, according to Pain In The Pass. A separate analysis of federal crash records designated a five-mile segment of the Cajon Pass between Hesperia and Highway 138 as the single deadliest stretch of road anywhere in California, logging 19 fatal crashes and 19 deaths between 2017 and 2019, the same outlet reported.
The pass divides the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges and includes grades reaching 6%, with extreme seasonal weather.
Crash Reconstruction
Fatal freeway crashes of this kind are typically handed to CHP's Inland Division Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, known as MAIT, which conducts physical reconstruction, survey mapping and mechanical analysis.
It is not yet known whether the MAIT unit was activated for this crash, whether a guardrail failure or a lack of barriers contributed to the vehicle going over the edge, or whether speed or impairment played a role in the pre-dawn roll-off. Those questions remain open pending the agency's formal review.
Part of a Pattern on Southbound I-15
Sunday's crash is the latest in a string of serious incidents along the same corridor this year. In July, a vehicle plunged down an embankment off southbound I-15 in the Cajon Pass, killing one person and injuring two others in a recovery effort that required extended emergency response, according to footage from OnScene.tv. In August, Hoodline reported that a motorcyclist died striking a guardrail near Cleghorn Road, backing traffic up into Hesperia and onto State Route 138. Just weeks later, a multi-vehicle collision involving a motorcycle near the same stretch during Labor Day weekend caused multi-hour backups into the High Desert during CHP's statewide maximum enforcement period. Earlier this month, a wrong-way driver on I-15 plunged into a Fontana flood channel and suffered major injuries, in a separate incident detailed in prior Hoodline coverage.
Interstate 15 through the Cajon Pass is a mountainous stretch of highway.
No further details about the person who died Sunday, the number of occupants in the vehicle, or the cause of the crash had been released as of publication. Victor Valley News, which reported the incident, covers communities across San Bernardino County and the Victor Valley region.
