SANTA CRUZ — A San Jose motorist was seriously injured and then later arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after going off a cliff and plunging a pickup truck into the ocean off the Santa Cruz shoreline, the California Highway Patrol said.
The crash occurred early Sunday morning along East Cliff Drive, according to a tweet by the CHP Santa Cruz area field office.
Photos posted by the CHP show that the white full-sized pickup truck ended up in the water near Pleasure Point Park, about three miles east of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The photos also show a missing portion of a wooden guardrail replaced with yellow police tape.
Incidentally, a sign right next to where the truck reportedly went off the roadway reads, “Caution Sheer Cliff.”
The CHP stated that the driver, a 50-year-old San Jose resident, suffered “major injuries as a result of the crash and was later arrested for DUI.”
In the CHP photos, the pickup truck could be seen where it came to rest in the water just offshore and also being lifted back up to the roadway. It appears to be a contractor’s truck, and a company logois visible on the side of the vehicle.
It was not immediately clear whether an employee of the Santa Clara-based firm was driving the truck when it crashed. A recorded message responding to phone calls stated that the company was closed Sunday. A voice message left by this news organization was not immediately returned.
Source: www.mercurynews.com