>

You Only Drive Once
Californias motto
My friend was a first responder there. She said this is the case 100%. He’ll likely go to prison! >

Has your friend ever heard of HIPAA? >

Trust me bro, they've definitely heard of a hippo. >


"We go there all the time for cars over the cliff and they never live. This was an absolute miracle," Pottenger said.

and

There was no guardrail at the spot where the sedan went off the cliff.

Hey I have a great idea! >

As someone who grew up in San Mateo County, they probably don't have a gaurd rail there because they can't put one there with out the road collapsing. There is a reason the area is called Devil's slide. >

I live in Montara and drive this road every day. There is actually a very extensive plan to build railings all along this stretch of road. The bicyclists are the ones fighting it, strangely enough. >

Would it shrink the width or something? >

Probably. You can't build too close to the cliff edge so you have to bring them in and there's no more shoulder, suddenly. >

At a certain point it will probably have to go a similar route to Independence Pass in Colorado- it's eroded so much that the last time i drove it they had stoplights that only let one direction of traffic go at a time through the tightest areas >

I like mountains and oceans and end up out a ways sometimes. There's some old, old highways and roads out into nothing in California. Some of them are just so narrow it's unbelievable. Hwy 4 past Bear Valley hits a winter closure gate and in summer if you keep going the road narrows and there's no more center dividing line and if you keep going past Lake Alpine there's some areas where it's cliff face, road, sheer drop. I drove and drove and drove and couldn't find a wide enough turn around so I had to drive into a wide spot, backed up onto a granite boulder, was three wheels down in my Subaru, and rolled the windows down, listened for cars, then launched on a blind curve back onto the highway because otherwise I was ten point turning on a winding goat path of a road.
Burned rubber on a rock and vrooomed off my boulder. Was that or keep going and hope I found a better way to get back to my campsite or block the entire highway for a turn. Neither sounded awesome. Rock launch onto the road it was.
The cost of carving Hwy 4 into the cliff face to widen, add shoulders and a center dividing line and guard rails would be insane. They'd cut off half of Alpine County before they spent billions to connect Markleeville to the rest of the state. Only like three people live there.
Fun fact: Alpine County is cut off in winter so they either have to go through Nevada or use snowmobiles to cross Ebbett's Pass to get to Bear Valley. There's no actual incorporated city in all of Alpine County, and they are entirely cut in half during winter. Only emergency services can use the closed road as a snowmobile route. >

LA county has about 6 million people, Alpine county has about 6,000. That is why we don't elect the Governor by Electoral College. >

It's great that they all survivors.  Someone can enlighten me a bit.  If this is an area where cars plunge off the side of the road, why don't they have a guardrail or something to prevent the cars going over? >

When I moved to the west coast I was shocked at the lack of guardrails. On the east coast they are everywhere for the smallest of hills. West coast, they have drops and no guardrails. >

It might be a local government thing. I know in my county of Washington at least the heavily traveled roads with bad drops off curves have guardrails, even if it's technically rural. I think there's a rule in place that says after x deaths per year a rail is automatically slated to be installed too, to cut through bureaucratic bs. Idk if it's on a state or county level though. >

You'd think that they could look at data from other similar roads and go "this road looks like others that people die on" and then spend a few bucks to prevent the deaths. >

There are so many mountain roads and steep drop offs it would be a massive engineering project to out guardrails everywhere. They rely on drivers having common sense.  In populated areas treacherous winding mountain roads do have some guardrails, but many do not. Tons of roads just wind through various mountainous areas. >

The outboard side of those roads may not even be stable enough for guardrails. CA has hundreds if not thousands of miles of road like this. I am fairly certain the reason there are no guardrails is not "gee we didnt think of that". It is probably "we did a detailed engineering survey and the costs were simply too high". >


It is probably "we did a detailed engineering survey and the costs were simply too high".

It is not better that "we won't spend the money we took from the public on public safety" is a possible answer. >

It’s too difficult and costly of a massive engineering project for the minimal benefit of the handful of people that drive drunk or like it’s a personal racetrack. >

Bingo.. cost/benefit analysis complete. >

Can a California resident chime in here?
It looks like Devils slide is a 1.3 mile stretch of highway 1(aka PCH). It also looks like they closed it off to cars back in 2013 when they built the Tom Lantos tunnels specifically to avoid Devils Slide. So what’s going on here?
Edit: I went digging after reading all the guardrail comments. It looks like California has done a lot to try and mitigate this particularly dangerous section of road. Just wondering if the local use of ‘devils slide’ refers to a much larger area then the official section? >

I used to live a few miles south of this section of the road.  This happens a few times a year.   The road is very windy with a cliff in both sides.   Usually this happens at night, the wreck isn't noticed for hours, and the vehicle occupants aren't so lucky.  A few years ago there was a dashcam video of an SUV going off.  There are a few turns in the road where a miscalculation ends up tragic.  There are some guard rails, but they obviously aren't a complete solution to the problem.
The tunnel was opened a few years ago.  Previously part of the road washed away after a big rain storm, shutting down the road.  It took many months to repair and businesses in the area suffered, as this is the only road between two fairly busy towns.  The tunnel bypasses the section which was washed out, but not the entire sketchy section.   The road is on the side of the cliff for several miles, and bypassing the entire section would be too large for a tunnel. >

I’ve driven that pass about 3-4 times and almost every time a truck with brights on tails my ass at the bends while I’m going the speed limit. I’m trying not to die!!!!! >

Don't you know their shipment is more important than your life? >

Pickup trucks, definitely not larger than that haha, but happy cake day :) >

It was intentional. The father was arrested for attempted murder. >

I live in the area.  This is a weird one.  Most cars go off a bit farther down the road, where there is a curve, but if you miss it, you'll hit the berm which will take the car airborne and off the cliff.  Some people miss the curve (driving too fast), and some people do this intentionally (want to end it all).
This car went over the cliff in the parking area right next to the tunnel.  There is a wooden guard rail and stone wall in that area.  Did they come out of the tunnel too fast and swerve into the parking area and over the edge?  They would have had to jump one curb at the parking area and go through the rail.
Did they accelerate quickly in the parking lot and go through the rail?
Perhaps the cars event data recorder will shed light on the last minute of driving.
tl;dr Doesn't make sense.  It's not a great place to drive off the cliff intentionally (1/3 mile down the road is where people do that), but it seems hard to do accidentally where it did happen. >

The Tesla absolutely will have a record of exactly what happened, And because this is in the news that data has already been pulled by Tesla engineers and thoroughly reviewed. Every acceleration, button press, break, and volume adjust is recorded... Also recorded is whether or not Tesla AI tried to override what you were doing, and whether or not you disengaged Tesla AI from keeping you safe. In this case, the investigation so far has shown that it was not in full auto, but if it was using driver assist at all the card likely would have attempted to prevent this by breaking (which you can override by tapping the gas or any other control). Tesla has its virtually unlimited access to data stored on its cars, It's part of the contract. Unless autopilot was turned all the way off, The Tesla absolutely would have engaged the breaks. It's sensors would have noticed the drop. The car probably noticed that it was in an accident and immediately sent its data to Tesla as well. >

Enjoyed your comment, thank you. One thing - it’s brake(s), not break(s) >

See profile. Typos courtesy of voice text. I'm disabled with bad hands. (: >

Ah damn - sorry to hear that and sorry to add to what must be a constant frustration for you, being corrected for voice-to-text’s deficiencies :/ >

No problem!  you get used to it...and you learn to ignore people who are clearly just being aggressive dicks to be aggressive. If someone's just being an ass I'm just not going to respond to them because they don't deserve my attention. When someone is very clearly not being rude but is trying to be helpful, they get this response. >

Be interesting to see what the built in dash cams recorded. >


The road's conditions were also not believed to be a factor in the crash.

Wow. Wonder what happened.

...a rescue operation that took several hours amid constant rain, heavy winds, slick roads...

:| >

It was a typical California road. No guardrails and huge drops off one side. I lost a 17 year old cousin to one 25 years ago. >

My condolences for your loss. 
I'm a motorcyclist and see videos of these roads all the time. I'll admit I haven't looked in to it but I can't fathom a good reason why there aren't the most technologically advanced guardrails we have to offer on these roads. >

It’s called Devil’s Slide for a reason. That stretch of road is rebuilt at great expense on a regular basis after land slides. >

The tunnel helped quite a bit. The old road is now a trail you can walk on with some wild views. Used to live close by and loved all the scenery. >

“Tesla plunges off cliff” - I thought this was an article about the stock the first time I read it. >

Me too. Then I thought it was an article about the Tesla autopilot going wrong. Then I read that autopilot was not on and realized that the author probably just realized that the article would get more clicks if it had “Tesla” in the headline >

Calling it a miracle gives no credit to the engineering of the vehicle for safety. >

I was waiting for someone to point this out. Teslas are simply the safest and most reliable cars on the road whether you like Elon or the occasional surface-level build quality missteps or not. >

Yeah, people hesitate to give Tesla credit even though the awesome engineers and builders are making a kick ass car that is also the most Americans car. We shouldn't let Musk's BS stop us from recognizing them and their hard work >

Latest news is the driver drove off cliff intentionally. Came out on local radio news today. >

These people fell 250ft off a part of the highway named the "Devil's Slide" that's known for fatal wrecks, onto rocky cliffs below. There's no indication that this is a Tesla problem, more-so it's shocking that everyone survived such a fall at all. >

FYI it’s called Devil’s Slide, not The Devil’s Slide.
This happened south of Devil’s Slide, as that area is only open to bicycles and foot traffic. 
And we have no idea if they were paying attention or using any Tesla adaptive devices. 
We got rid of our Tesla because the wipers wouldn’t work when driving on 17 at night, in the rain. It was a “software issue” that was fixed a week later with an update. But that didn’t stop us from almost falling off the side of the cliff. We could barely see. It was 100% the Tesla’s fault. Thankfully people were paying stupid prices for used teslas. >

You never bothered pressing the button to manually turn the wipers on? I guess in CA people don't use them much. >

They literally didn’t work. An update/patch fixed it a week later. >

That's fucky, I'd have sold the car as well! >

My husband loved the car! It was his baby, but that spooked him, plus how he had to have it in the service center for a month when he first bought it because it wasn’t assembled properly? The steering column was apparently a known issue, I just find it odd that they delivered a car with known issues? 
He honestly didn’t mind so much, but was more annoyed that the service people didn’t believe him about the steering at first (turning left took major effort). Then they’d give him only a $5 Uber credit which wasn’t even enough to get him back to his office. >

I blame Toonces the Cat >

Damn dude going way back for that reference. >

Worth it tho. >

I know it's really popular to hate on Tesla's, but they actually do consistently well in crash tests, getting some of the highest safety ratings. 
People are so concerned about stuff like panel gaps and low quality paint, they look past the fact they're not horrible vehicles overall. 
I'm not a fan of Elon either, but let's try to be a bit objective here, an entire family survived going off a cliff, that's pretty incredible. >


I’m not a fan of Elon either, but

Musk has become like Trump on Reddit where the hatred is so over the top you have to constantly mention that you don’t approve just to be able to have a rational conversation. >

Kinda crazy because I remember a year or two ago seeing people praise him a lot on Reddit. Now it’s the opposite. >

Musk has a big mouth and an even bigger ego, both things which get him into hot water on a regular occasion. It is bizarre to me how much reddit hates him for these things -- there are billionaires who have done much, much worse, like the Sacklers, but I guess they don't make the news that often, so you don't see the constant stream of hate for them. If we judge deeds, not words, and we compare dragging the world into the electric car era versus plunging America into a deadly and still ongoing opioid epidemic, it seems clear who is the bigger villain. >

Musk is not a good person. He didn’t invent stuff he just took over things. Who are these sackler fucks. All these people who do these things like sell opioids misleadingly and stuff are terrible monsters. Ever hear of lead? That was put in car gas and now it’s everywhere. Just for a few dollars. We need people who actually want to help humanity, not Elon fuck. >

Yeah you need to look some things up before blindly commenting based on your Musk hate. The original founders of Tesla confirmed years ago that Musk was very involved with designing things and the Sacklers are significantly worse people than Musk. They are a huge part of the Opioid epidemic. Their actions have quite literally have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. >

They are worse than musk indeedthen >

Tesla's vehicles have received some of the highest crash safety ratings by both the US and EU regulators. It's one of the most underrated and under-discussed benefits of Tesla's vehicles in my opinion and was a major factor I considered when purchasing one. >

They have a very low centre of gravity, which reduces the chances of them flipping along with other benefits. >

The part between the wheels is also where the battery and it's structural support, making that very hard to compress which is also where the occupants are.  And while they get criticized for their egg shapes those are basically the strongest shapes as well as being aerodynamic. >

Give credit where credit is due. Shout out to Tesla for having   some of the safest vehicles on the road. I'm sure the hardened roof rails were a major factor in the family surviving. >

On or near the road. >

There's nothing in here that says it was on autopilot when the crash happened >

But saying "Tesla" and "crash" in the same headline drives clicks. >

It’s not a miracle. It is evidence that the design of the vehicle is safe. >

California cliffs, we’re unforgettable
Tesla crushed but family untouched >

Good engineering. Not miracle. >

Excellent air brakes >

Tesla's are very safe cars when it comes to surviving crashes. Our Model 3 got rear ended by a lady driving fast and hitting the car at high speed with a large SUV at a traffic stop. The occupant survived and mostly OK. The car got totaled but I thought any other car would not have been this good in that accident in protecting the person. >

Not the only thing of Musk's that's fallen off a cliff recently >

You mean his common sense, sanity or Twitter's stock price? >

*Tesla's stock price
Twitter is private now.  No stock. >

There is stock, it just isn’t publicly traded. >

For everyone asking why they don’t have guardrails.
I live in this area and they don’t have guard rails because it takes away from the view of the ocean. Now I’m not arguing this in just saying why they don’t have them. They care more about the views than people being safe, you see it all through central california. >

"absolute miracle"
-God "seriously?" >

The only unrailed spots are where dumb tourists pull over to take pictures, so probably was going too fast as lost traction when braking. >

They did it on purpose. Driver was arrested for attempted murder today. >

Thanks for the update, that’s wild >

Had to be awkward af waiting for rescue. >

Speaks extremely well to Tesla that these people survived the crash. Should definitely give us some analysis and reporting on how the car's design must've protected them. >

I don’t care for Elon or for Teslas, but that’s some excellent safety engineering and building right there. >

Those Californian roads are terrifying on the best of days. >

Why tf aren’t there guard rails. Especially if the area is KNOWN for dangerous fatal crashes??