One Dead, Three Injured in Angeles Crest Highway Plunge; Pasadena Firefighter Hurt in Rescue

[Updated] One person was killed, and three others were injured when a vehicle went over the side of Angeles Crest Highway on Wednesday night, coming to rest several hundred feet below the roadway and forcing a multi-agency rope rescue, a Pasadena city spokeswoman said.

Pasadena police and fire crews responded about 10:30 p.m. to a report of a vehicle with four occupants that had gone over the side of the highway, according to Lisa Derderian, the city’s chief communications officer.

Pasadena’s boundaries include a narrow, panhandle-shaped strip of land extending north into the San Gabriel Mountains, and that strip takes in a short segment of Angeles Crest Highway.

A man in his 20s died, Derderian said. The three surviving occupants — one man and two women, all in their early 20s — were taken to a trauma center with injuries the city described as moderate to significant. The survivors are from the Orange County area, Derderian said.

One firefighter suffered a knee injury during the operation and was taken to a local emergency room.

Reaching the wreck proved difficult. The Pasadena Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue team, joined by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Glendale Fire Department and Montrose Search and Rescue, conducted low-angle rope operations to get down to the heavily damaged vehicle, Derderian said. 

Crews used the Jaws of Life to extricate each occupant, then raised them up the steep terrain in a rescue basket, Derderian said.

As of 5:26 a.m. Thursday, information about the driver was not yet available, Derderian said.

Investigators from the Pasadena Police Department’s Major Accident Investigation Team have responded.